Fear of the Storm
by EnvelopesandCypressTrees
Summary: Makoto has many fears, the ocean and storms being the top of the list. But he is about to find one even greater than those A stalker. He is trying to keep it a secret from his friends but as the texts grow more dangerous and the stalker gets closer he has to decide whether to face the storm alone or drag his friends in with him. LANG&VIOLENCE&RAPE
1. The Calm before the Storm

**My first ever Free! FanFic. Huge Makoto fan as you can see as you read. This is pure WHUMP like seriously. It gets better...**

**Rated T- mild language. Very, very mild. rating will go up!**

**(heads up: this is newly renovated.)**

**Read and Review**

* * *

**DAY ONE**

HARU'S POV

I watched Makoto as we walked, I always did. Out of the corner of my eye. He was telling me about his family's trip to America. They were leaving today. I pretended not to care, yet his enthusiasm and his pride for his siblings captivated me every time. Today was no different.

He really was too selfless. I had seen that attribute get him hurt many times. And yet for some reason he never changed, he was just a kind and caring as he had been back when I met him in elementary school. He was oblivious to his own charms. No wonder he had so many friends. It made me jealous. Not of him, of his other friends.

He always called me his best friend. I denied it every time, yet we both knew it was true. And I was happy.

He buzzed with light and optimism. It was blinding sometimes.

We were walking our usual route, the one that lead by the ocean. The breeze was warm and sweet, the scent of water, cheery blossoms by the bay, tellers selling early morning breads and the sugar smelling reeds that decorated the sand. I never knew what they were called but every spring they would grow a deep blue flower, and every year Makoto would pick one for his mother.

I stared at my shoes, watching the cracked cement pass below me as we walked, Iwatobi looming before us like a fortress, the gates open like a dungeon.

Makoto's story had long ago ended and we walked in silence. My eyes on the ocean besides us. Occasionally I would look over and he'd be staring ahead, smiling... humming? What an idiot. We passed the gates and the ocean disappeared, walking the last bit in the darkness of a view without water.

When we reached the slightly run down school Rei and Nagisa were there waiting. They greeted us and we walked together the last few minutes to our classes.

"We'll train extra hard today!" Nagisa exclaimed flapping his arms like wings. What a child. I looked away and to the blank walls that consumed the hall.

"Is there an upcoming event I am unaware of?" Rei asked, pushing his glasses into place with a wire-thin finger, "I thought the next few weeks were free?" my eyes fluttered up to Makoto who's face was unreadable.

"They are, but…I want to practice extra hard to swim like Haru-chan before he leaves for the university!" Nagisa voice cracked with childish emotion. And I rolled my eyes

"True!" Rei lit up "I do too, Haru is leaving soon and it's our last chance to swim beautifully with him!" My gaze wandered from the two enthusiastic swimmers, falling back on my best friend. He looked crestfallen. His head slightly bowed, olive hair hanging loosely in his face.

I realized that although this was his last year too, neither had mentioned him.

My heart ached and I opened my mouth to say something but just as the saddened look came it was erased from his face, replaced by that smile we all knew too well.

"Me too!" the others looked at him and smiled not even realizing their own stupid mistake. I knew they hadn't meant anything by it, they adored Makoto, yet… his eyes twinkles and his mouth parted into an exaggerated grin.

"I just want to swim with Makoto" I said, I felt Makoto turn to me, hazel eyes glittering, mouth melting from the grin into a gaping void of shock.

"Haru…" he whispered, surprised at my sudden statement.

"If anyone swims "beautifully" it's him…" I realized I may have sounded too admiring, and I blushed, my eyes snapping back to the blank walls. "I just want us to all swim together." The school bell rang.

None of us noticed the storm clouds rumbling in the distance.

* * *

MAKOTO'S POV

I sat in class thinking about what Haru had said. "_I just want to swim with Makoto…if anyone swims beautifully it's him."_

I had never felt more filled with happiness and pride then that moment. Which is probably why the instance kept replaying in my memories. I stared at the window. The horizon consisted of a solid black line. Storm clouds. They'd be here by night. I hoped it wasn't too bad, I hoped everyone would be alright…

My fingers traced a name someone had carved into the desk, it was written so poorly I couldn't tell what it read. I stared with an T. the rest was lost in the grains of the wood.

The metal from beneath the desk burned cold into my thighs, my arms rigid in hard bumps. The room was cold, causing the windows besides me to be covered in a thin white mist. I silently rubbed some away so I could see outside. My palm becoming wet from the condensation.

The teacher's voice brought me out of my thoughts, she was saying my name. As I snapped to reality I noticed the class was staring at me and I blushed, bowing my head in shame.

"Makoto, are you all right? Do you need to see the nurse?"

"No, I'm fine…Gomen." I smiled sheepishly "I must have dosed off." My cheeks burned in embarrassment, I heard a girl near me giggle.

"That's unlike you…maybe you should go to the infirmary anyways, just to be sure."

"Gomen, gomen…"I bowed my head repeatedly until she went back to her lesson, he tapped her chalk on her desk and looked at me with curiosity and concern.

"Get more rest, Makoto" the class turned away from me and I breathed a sigh of relief, slumping in my seat. As the teacher resumed her lesson, I noticed a pair of ocean-blue eyes burning into me. I met Haru's gaze which was more criticizing than concerned and I shrugged with an awkward smile.

I knew Haru had trouble expressing concern, but his eyes also screamed "is everything ok?" and I couldn't help but laugh at how readable he was. Even if he denied it.

I looked back to the window, a very soft rain began to tap at it. My gaze circulated the empty school yard about three stories below me, luckily I had a window seat, I didn't want anyone to think I was staring at them.

The courtyard was bare, soil. A large Sakura tree in the middle surrounded by petals and benches.

My eyes landed on a man standing in the middle of the courtyard.

He was just standing there.

With a startle I realized he was staring straight up, his eyes locked into mine. I looked away sharply, blinking. I must have been mistaken, why would anyone be looking up at me? It was a simple coincidence. I focused my eyes on the teacher, my mind elsewhere.

Thinking of why Nagisa and Rei didn't want to swim with me, only Haru. That was a selfish thought.

My eyes wandered back to courtyard and my heart skipped a beat. The man was still standing there staring up at my seat. I looked away again, he was too far away to see his features, did I know him?

Careful not to turn my head I turned my eyes back to the window. Trying to take in the man's clothes, they were black, or dark blue. Maybe he was just curious about the school…a scout? And my heart raced in an instant.

A scout!? I turned my head fully. It made sense. Was I going to get scouted? My head pounded with adrenaline, exhilaration…joy. I had been heartbroken when Haru had got scouted and I hadn't. Would I get to swim with him some more? The thought was pure excitement. I stared at the man, my hopes and dreams seemingly revolving around the man himself. My phone buzzed silently in my pocket, carefully I drew it out, hiding it from the watchful eye of the teacher.

I looked down at the phone in my lap, it was a small bit of warmth in the icy room. It was Haru. I looked up at my friend across the room who was sitting straight facing ahead, the soft glow of his phone in his hands.

I read it.

**HARU-CHAN**

**You look like an idiot smiling at that window.**

Haru never texted but when he did it was just like real life… careless and blunt. I bit back a bark of laughter, he was probably right. But no one, besides Haru had been paying any attention to notice my sudden excitement. I smiled and began to put my phone away. Turning back to the small porthole I had cleared myself in the window.

When it buzzed again, thinking it was Haru, I eagerly read it. When the words sunk in I sat shock still, smile rapidly fading from my lips.

**UNKNOWN NUMBER**

**Your friend is right.**

My eyes immediately snapped back to the window, but the man outside was gone.

* * *

HARU'S POV

"Makoto dozed off in class!?" Rei exclaimed, disbelief ringing in his voice. He laughed almost sadistically. "Don't let your grades slip, you have to keep your reputation!"

I looked up from my bento and to Makoto who looked bored, sipping on a milk box. He talked through his straw.

"And what would that be?" I chewed on a bite of mackerel silently. The rain had stopped, but it was obvious more was to come, his eyes looked troubled. I had noticed the change in class, he had looked scared for a moment, but I didn't ask why.

"You know!" Nagisa said nonchalantly "your perfect, goody two shoes, mama's boy reputation." Makoto laughed finally finishing his milk and tossed it at the garbage can near the edge of the roof. He missed.

"Enough, enough" he said waving away their teasing, he got up and brushed off his pants. I heard his phone buzz and watched him fish it out, visibly tense. He flipped it open with trembling fingers. My eyes widened slightly as I saw the trembling.

Neither Nagisa nor Rei noticed it, as they were already arguing about something trivial. I watched Makoto out of the corner of my eye, as he flipped his phone closed, almost violently and went to throw away the carton of milk that had missed earlier. He sat down beside me and stole a piece of my mackerel, I let him. To busy studying him to protest. He quickly joined in on the argument, but I couldn't shake the worry growing inside me.

The wind was blowing across the roof, sending our hair into a gentle array, and our napkins tumbling away. The soft breeze changing often and causing the small white squares to dance across the roof in different directions. The air no longer smelled sweet. It smelled musty, wet. Of rain.

Even as Makoto's eyes crinkled with laughter and it floated across the roof, it still seemed forced. Not like usual. Usually his laughter, so light and genuine, was enough to make me feel better. Today for some reason it made me feel nervous. I worried for him, although I'd never admit it. What was going on today?

Had something happened to his family in America? Was he worried about them?

I closed my bento box. Makoto didn't realize how much I watched him, if only people watched him more…

* * *

MAKOTO'S POV

When my phone buzzed on the roof with Haru and the other's I was immediately filled with dread…what if it was that man again? Was it even that man who had texted me? The joy of being scouted was immediately in that moment squashed into fear. Should I check my phone or ignore it?

**UNKNOWN NUMBER**

**You shouldn't litter.**

My eyes flew to my milk box which had fallen besides the trash can. I had just gotten up to retrieve it when the text came in. that meant who ever had sent the text had to be close enough to see me.

What was worse is that they…they were watching me. But why? Why me?

I reached down and picked up the milk carton, squeezing it momentarily until a few wet, white drops dripped down my fingers. I tossed it away, looking around for a moment. No one. The sky was getting even darker and the wind increasing, I ran my hands through my hair to hold it in place and stretched, a button popped open on my chest and I took a moment to refasten it. It was then I realized the slight tremor in my fingers. I hoped there wouldn't be too bad of a storm. I'm scared of storms.

For a moment I realized I was home alone this week. With these weird texts, I really didn't want to be alone right now. I turned and scurried back to my friends. Maybe it was a prank? The thought relieved me and I pushed the thoughts of the mysterious texts aside, joining in on my friend's conversation.

Haru was staring at his bento, saying nothing nor eating. I reached over and stole a piece of his mackerel, sure that would break him free from his daze. He said nothing as I chewed it.

I made a face, I don't like mackerel. I watched my best friend until briefly we made eye contact. His blue eyes boring into mine with an odd expression, I bit my lip as he looked away.

I hope he's all right.

* * *

HARU'S POV

It was the last class of the day, rain was pouring from the heavens outside. It looked like night.

I wouldn't get to swim today. My heart ached slightly, I should just go home. The clock mocked me, the seconds felt like minutes. I looked over to Matoko who was busy scribbling notes furiously into his notepad. His face was thoughtful, somewhat sleepy like normal, it made me smile.

Maybe he really was ok, maybe I was just over reacting before.

I notice his finger tapping his desk quickly, like he was impatient…nervous? Then it hit me.

Him looking out the window earlier, his unease…he's scared of storms. It wasn't a hunch, I knew he was. He'd confided in me back in middle school. _"Storms are like beasts, they howl and bark…and people are fools to think they can be tamed"_ Makoto was scared of a lot of things, wasn't he?

The thought made me laugh inwardly. Something about that was comforting.

The school bell rang loudly, like a scream, causing my skin to lurch. With a loud scuffling students stood and gathered their things for home. The overhead speaker tackled and the principles voice wafted over us.

"Students, school is canceled tomorrow due to typhoon warnings…please go home immediately and seek shelter." When the announcement ended the class buzzed with excitement, I sighed. Idiots, it's just water. I slowly gathered my things from my desk. Makoto made his way to me and handed me his notepad. I looked at the worn blue cardboard that he was offering me, I reached for it.

"My notes, I noticed you weren't taking any" I gently took the notepad from him and placed it in my book bag. My eyes met his, they were kind and he offered me a sweet smile. "No need to thank me." I fastened the buckles on my bag, the leather steps sliding through my fingers.

"I wasn't going to." He laughed genuinely and swung his own book bag over his shoulder. "Don't you need these notes for homework?

"Nah, I'll just call Rei…he helps me out with my homework" an unexpected pang of jealousy drove through me like an icicle. I stood straight and turned away holding my bag by my side, I took a step towards the door.

"Hey, Matoko?" I stopped and turned back to him my eyes slid up to search out the unfamiliar voice, a boy in our class was making his way through the lingering students, pushing his way to my friend. Matoko turned on cue, surprised to be confronted by this boy who he had never spoken to before.

"Yes?" the strange blonde boy smiled,

"Can I borrow 1,000 yen for the bus? I'll pay you back" I knew he wouldn't, my eyes flashed with anger, I turned my attention to Makoto who still looked surprised but was busy fishing around in his pockets. He drew out a crumpled bill and handed it over.

"Sure…be safe." The stranger took the money and turned away pushing his way back through the students, he hadn't said thank you, anger boiled inside me. I swore I heard him mutter under his breath

"What a pushover" but I wasn't sure so I said nothing. Once again Matoko was being too selfless and it had caused him to get hurt. I curled my fingers into his jacket cuff and pulled him from the class room eager to leave. I heard his phone buzz in his pocket, he ignored it.

"What about your bus fare?" I asked, I noticed him blanch as he allowed himself to be towed. Idiot, he just gave away his bus money. "You don't have any do you?"

"I-it's ok, I'll walk today."

"There's a storm."

"I'll run."

Idiot.

* * *

MAKOTO'S POV

We had gotten home safely. It had taken me a little longer than 2 hours to run from Iwatobi to here. I was soaking wet by the time I had arrived at my house, I had an umbrella with me but it's not easy to run with it apparently. I had somehow convinced Haru to take the bus without me and by the time I reached my door, the lights in his house were already on. At least he got home safe and dry.

I shivered, my bones aching in the cold. Stupid, stupid, stupid. I chided myself as my fingers trembled turning the doorknob. My nose was running down my upper lip and chin. I was sure to get a cold after this. At least my family wasn't home to catch it from me. That was a small comfort.

Finally I let myself in and dashed upstairs to the shower, throwing off my clothes and stepping in. the hot water seemed to burn me but I welcomed the warmth. I pressed my head on the cool tiles as steam consumed the tiny room.

Suddenly I remembered the text I had gotten while leaving with Haru this afternoon, I reached out of the shower and grabbed my phone. Flipping it open, a small seed of dread grew in my stomach. I wiped the condensation of the screen and read the message.

**UNKNOWN NUMBER**

**You can come home with me.**

That one seemed nice enough, I sighed in relief. And flipped my phone closed. Tossing it back on the counter. Finally I stepped from the shower pulling on clean boxers and threw my clothes in the hamper. As I placed a pot on the stove and waited for the water to boil my mind wandered back to the texts. Did…

Did I have a stalker?

I nearly laughed out loud. Who would stalk me? I'm not special. I placed the ramen in the pot and sat back down, replaying the day in my head. Thunder boomed and I involuntarily gasped, pressing my palms against my ears. Slowly I pried my hands away and sat, my skin trembling until I recomposed myself. I ate, then headed upstairs for some sleep.

**DAY 2**

Rain plummeted the window, I found myself watching the drops roll off the glass pane. It reminded me of when I pull myself from the pool, the drops of water running down my skin. I rolled over. Away from the glass. And closed my eyes. It was already morning, there would be no sun today. The typhoon had given up attacking the town. It was nearing the end of the storm and I was restless, unable to sleep.

My bed was soft, swaddling me like a warm pool of water, I seemed to sink into it.

The house was silent, still like a corpse. I was alone. That always made me uneasy. The power had long ago failed and the block was thrown into a powerless, black. The house was dark and grey from the storm, unearthly silent except for the constant soft pattering of rain.

There was a boom of thunder and the window trembled. My skin itched, crawling like bug's limbs.

I didn't mind the day off. Sometimes, I guess, it was nice to be alone.

…**BUZZ…**

The doorbell. My skin jumped at the sudden sound.

A visitor during a storm? My mind flew to take in the possibilities. It was probably a serial killer who needed a place to wait out the storm, I stopped dead and trembled. I shouldn't scare myself like that.

I swung my legs out of bed and stretched, my muscles pulling taut against my skin. I couldn't remember how long I had laid there trying to sleep. After a second I pulled a pair of sweatpants over my boxers and walked to the stairs.

It was probably Haru. Come over to check on me while my family was away. I was afraid of storms after all. Only he knew that.

…**BUZZ…**

"Coming, be right there!" My voice echoed eerily in the empty house, I didn't like the way it sounded. Far too lonely in our big house. Lightning flashed and the house shook. I swallowed heavily. I checked the clock on the wall. 7:36 AM

My phone vibrated obnoxiously in the pocket of my pants, the sound drowned by the silence and pattering drops. I nearly jumped out of my skin, making my way towards the door, I flipped it open. The screen lit up my face, I hadn't expected it to be so bright, I blinked in the sudden glare until my pupils adjusted. It was a message.

**UNKNOWN NUMBER**

**Answer the door, Makoto. I don't like to wait.**

I froze in mid step, re-reading the message. My mind reeled. Then the person at the door wasn't Haru? I swallowed heavily and looked up at the door, which seemed to loom dangerously mere feet away. As if my joints were consumed by ice, I was chilled to the bone.

I had forgotten about the mysterious texts yesterday…I looked back to my phone, my mind once again flying trying to think of all the possibilities.

The message sounded friendly enough, I had many friends whose numbers weren't in my phone…the possibilities were endless and yet something about the message made my skin crawl. Probably the fact that yesterdays were just as unnerving.

My phone buzzed again, out of the corner of my eye, I read it.

**UNKNOWN NUMBER**

**I know you are in there. I can see you.**

This had to be a prank. It had to be. One of the guys must have gotten a new phone and was…

The screen lit up once again.

**UNKNOWN NUMBER**

**You don't want to make me angry.**

I felt the color drain from my face. What was going on? My friends wouldn't threaten me even if it was a joke. It had to have been that man yesterday...I felt tempted to throw my phone. But I stood there frozen, gripping it so tightly I was surprised it didn't shatter. My fingers moved across the keyboard in a blur.

**MAKOTO**

**Who is this?**

Was it that man from yesterday? My phone buzzed almost immediately.

**UNKNOWN NUMBER**

**A fan.**

My mind reeled. My mouth felt like cotton. I was scared, and this time not of the storm. But of what was in it. I darted away from the door and back upstairs, grabbing a baseball bat from the back of my closet throwing clothes out upon the floor as I did. I slammed my door, turning the lock with an audible 'click'

I sat panting in the corner. I was over reacting probably, I knew that…but I was terrified. I was shaking so hard my teeth chattered. The doorbell did not ring again, nor did my phone receive any more texts. After a while, my shaking subsided and I pried my fingers away from the bat, my knuckles white from the grip. I pulled myself up to the window sill and looked outside. The rain had died considerably and the sky was a bright grey, of a sun trapped behind clouds.

The rain was merely a sprinkle now. How long had I been hiding? I checked the clock on my phone 8:07 AM. 30 minutes? My eyes trailed down to the sidewalk leading to my front door. It was empty. I breathed a sigh of relief and slid down the wall until I was sitting again, throwing aside the baseball bat with a 'thud.'

Why was this happening to me? I felt tears sting my eyes and my throat grew heavy, I wanted to cry. I scrubbed my face with my hands.

"Makoto?"

Suddenly the stairs squeaked, and my head shot up so quickly my vision swam. Was he in the house? I scrambled for the bat and pulled it to my torso like a lifeline. My eyes, so wide they grew dry, my breathing so heavy my throat ached.

My door handle rattled against the lock. And I bit my lip trying to blend into the shadows. It rattled again this time more forcefully. The baseball crackled under the pressure of my grip. My lip began to bleed. I was going to die

I was going to die...

"Makoto? It's Haru."

* * *

HARU'S POV

I watched the storm die away outside my window, the sky would be clear by noon. Makoto must had a tough night with the storm, it had reached its peak at around midnight, the street was littered with plants and some small trees. I grabbed my coat, it was almost 8, I was sure Makoto wouldn't mind the company.

When I got to his door, I noticed a pair of wet foot prints, was Rei over to help with his homework? I pushed my way inside, not bothering to knock. The house was dark from the power loss, I noticed with some surprise Makoto had no candles lit.

The house was nice, modern, basic. Usually light brightly to reveal bamboo colored furniture and white mats, always clean expect for kids toys from his siblings crowded in corners.

I heard a soft 'thump' upstairs. And followed the sound.

"Makoto?" I called, nothing. I ascended the stairs to his room, and opened the door. It was locked? Maybe stuck? I rattled the handle again.

"Makoto? It's Haru." Nothing, finally the door eased open, my best friend peeked out. He was a mess. My eyes scanned his body, taking in the details. "You look like crap. The storm's not that scary." He smiled forcefully, he looked terrified. Why was he so scared? I looked around the dim hall.

The door opened more, I scanned his shirtless, sweaty frame and messy hair. His sweatpants hung dangerously low on his hips, I blushed and looked away suddenly putting the pieces together. The appearance, the 'thump,' the nervous expression, the bloody lip, the footprints.

I had caught him with company. Company as in: he was having sex. I blushed even more furiously and turned my face away, embarrassed, annoyed and jealous. With who?

"What's going on, Haru?" he left his room and closed the door behind him, "is everything all right?" he had a bewildered face at my expression. He licked away the blood on his lip and sucked on it. "Want some tea?"

"Aren't you busy?" I spat almost venomously, he flinched, eyes hurt and wide at my tone.

"What? Of course not…" I squinted, accusation radiating from me like an aura. I shoved open his door and let myself in. I looked around frantically, his usually neat room was messy, closet yanked open clothes strewn out, bed unmade. But as for company...

The room was empty. There was no one here. Ashamed I blushed madly.

"Gomen" I closed my eyes, "I thought you had company." I opened my eyes to see Matoko blushing as well as he realized what I meant. He averted his eyes.

"N-no"

"Gomen" I repeated, turning and walking towards the door.

"I-it's ok, Haru-chan" my toe nudged something and it drew my attention.

…A baseball bat?

* * *

**DAY THREE**

MAKOTO'S POV

Nothing else had happened yesterday with the mysterious man, no texts, no more visits. Luckily the weekend had just started, and I had plans with Nagisa, Rei and Haru. I wouldn't be alone.

We had decided to go to the beach for the weekend, I wasn't so scared of the ocean anymore. More like…uneasy. It was almost noon, it had been over 24 hours since I had last received a text, it put me at ease.

It was all over. Deep inside I knew better.

But I held onto the false hope I'd never hear from him again. So when Nagisa and Rei knocked on my door to come get me for our trip to the beach. I was nothing but smiles. Back to my old self. I grabbed my duffle bag with packed clothes near the door and swung it over my back. It hit my shoulders more roughly than I expected and I stumbled slightly.

"Hey, Makoto-chan!" Nagisa chirped hanging on me like a jungle gym, I didn't bother to shake him off. "You're really lucky!" my head tilted slightly.

"Lucky?" Rei grabbed my hand and led me out the front door and turned me to face my house, a large tree had crashed besides my home barely missing it. I blanched. How did I not hear that? The thick root stuck up from the ground like a crown, stretching fingers for the cloudless sky.

"You could have been killed!" Rei cried, dramatically flailing his arms.

"Oui, Makoto-chan! We could have lost you!" Nagisa cried drawing out each word far too long. He whined like a child, rubbing his forehead into my shoulder, it made me laugh.

My phone buzzed, and I hummed in fear. Drawing the attention of my two friends. Damn, just when I thought I was going to be left alone. Stupid, false hope. I'm no one to curse, but my nerves were fraying.

"What's wrong, captain?" Rei asked, glasses gleaming in the sun. "You look discomforted."

"Gomen. It's nothing…" Nagisa shrugged and leapt onto Rei's back. I vaguely heard him cheer

"To the beach!" while I checked my messages.

**UNKNOWN NUMBER**

**Wonder what will happen when they do?**

Do? Do what? "_Oui, Makoto-chan! We could have lost you!"_ it hit me like a punch and I stumbled for a moment in shock, blindly following my two friends as we walked to the station. I put my phone away, shaking my head. Once again the man must have been close enough to hear the conversation. How could I not see him? I looked around almost desperately.

Where the hell was he?

"Makoto! What are you doing? Did you drop something?" I looked up at the eyes of my blonde friend, curiosity inscribed on his face.

"Ah…um no. there's usually a stray cat around here I feed…I was just looking for him."

"Aw. Mako-chan! You're so cute!" I couldn't help but blush I looked away shyly. My eyes still scanning for the man.

"Typical Makoto" I heard Rei said, a tone of fondness in his voice. Not used to all this attention I blushed harder. We walked the shaded street, a tunnel of tree of trees, the ocean unseen behind the canopies. Several cars buzzed past.

We arrived at the station before Haru or Gou, she had decided last minute to tag along. As we sat on the bench, we watched busses pass and shared a bread. I heard Rei mutter

"You know Makoto. We're really going to miss you." My eyes snapped towards my two friends who looked uncharacteristically solemn. Chewing their bread with little enthusiasm.

"Rei…Nagisa" I whispered "what do you mean?" the bread was sticky and sweet in my mouth, for a moment it was hard to swallow.

"When you go off to your university in a few months!" Nagisa said, emotionally. "You're going to go away and we'll never see you again!" I searched his tearing eyes and felt my heart melt, I smiled and tussled his hair

"Of course you'll see me, Nagisa" I looked to Rei "Rei"

"It won't be the same." Rei whispered, a bus passing nearly drowned it out.

"You are my best friends." I said, warm inside at their caring, "I'll do anything to make sure we stay that way." Their eyes shimmered, and I'm sure mine were too. "Let's enjoy our time together!"

"Hai!" they both chorused. Smiles bright on their faces. I took in that light for a moment relishing in its warmth. I was so lucky, to have friends like them.

This time when my phone buzzed it was Haru. He'd be here soon. I told him to take his time.

* * *

HARU'S POV

I walked with Gou in silence, she had bought a Popsicle from the family store and shared it with me. With our mouths full of sweets we were far too preoccupied to make small talk. It wasn't until the station loomed in front of us did one of us talk, it was Gou

"I'm so excited!" she said, spinning her umbrella. "I love the beach! And we're staying at a lodge with hot springs!" she squealed girlishly, "I'm so glad we decided to do this!" she didn't love the beach, she loved the muscles. But I said nothing and took a small bite of my Popsicle. She waved frantically at the others as they came to view. "Good Morning!"

"Morning." They chorused.

"Can you believe there was a typhoon yesterday? It's so bright and beautiful today!" Rei said beckoning around him. Nagisa shook his arms violently, face contorted into a childish pout

"Enough small talk! Let's go swim!" I threw away the rest of my Popsicle, I couldn't agree more.

We arrived at the beach around 1 PM. The sun was scorching and everyone immediately shed into their bathing suits. Luckily the water was cool and gentle, it felt like a cold blanket draped across the hot earth, and I relished it.

Nearby Matoko, Rei and Nagisa were splashing like drowning penguins, and Gou was floating screaming at them to take it easy.

I guess he was ok today. My mind floating back to Makoto. I drifted along, I couldn't shake that look of terror he had yesterday morning from my memories. Every time I thought it, I winced.

With my eyes closed I felt the soft fingers of the oceans gently caressing me. Cold like powdery snow, as if I were being rocked by the arms of a ghost. It lapped up over my ears, my hearing muffled I could only hear blissful silence which seemed to hum.

I opened my eyes and stared up into the sky, the water guiding me along, suddenly my eye caught something troubling and I trashed, stopping my peaceful drift, as I bobbed up and down I stared at the shore.

There was a man, standing deep in the shadows. But what scared me the most was that we was staring out over the water, straight at the unsuspecting Makoto. His eyes following his every move. I too looked at Makoto, then back to the shadows. By then man was gone.

My skin crawled. I didn't like this at all.

The sun set quickly and soon it was sunset, we lay sprawled on the beach, Nagisa and Rei fast asleep on the sand. The soft snores drown out by the waves, and Gou had left to check into the lodge. I stared at the stars.

Makoto rolled over to look at me a sweet smile on his face, his eyes were tired.

"The oceans not so scary like this" he said, muffling a yawn. The waves were gentle and soothing, and I nodded in agreement. I turned my head to look at him. The last time I had seen him lying in the sand was when he had drown. The thought made me shudder. "You ok, Haru?"

"Yes." My thought fluttered back to the man I had seen earlier "I saw this man today…on the beach." I realized that was too vague so I added "staring at you." There was a moment of silence, when I looked over I saw he had tensed.

"Maybe he thought he knew me from somewhere?" I guess that made sense so I turned my eyes back to the stars.

"Yeah maybe." We listened to the silence for a while, both thinking to ourselves, I wondered what he was thinking about.

"We should carry Nagisa and Rei back to the lodge."

"Yeah, ok." I didn't want to leave the water, but for my friends I'd do anything.

* * *

MAKOTO'S POV

I was lying in bed, arms crossed behind my head, thinking about what Haru had told me. "_I saw this man today on the beach, staring at you._"

I had already given up pretending like nothing was wrong here. I was being stalked. I was constantly checking over my shoulder and by now I had put my phone on silent, even though I had received no new texts. It sent my heart into a frenzy whenever I felt the vibration, so I just turned it off.

Haru had seen a man staring at me…so Haru must have guessed something was up. I hadn't been myself lately. I looked over to the bed next to me, Rei was sleeping soundly. I smiled softly and swung my legs out of bed. Careful not to wake him I pulled up his covers and returned to my own bed.

Should I just tell everyone? I didn't want to worry them but I was afraid. Maybe I should report this to the police? I sat up in bed hurriedly and grabbed my phone off the side table, not wanting to wake Rei I decided to use the lobby phone. I went to the door.

The answer was so clear! Why hadn't I thought of telling the police earlier? Careful not to wake Rei I slipped out into the hall. Not caring that I was shirtless I dashed down to the lobby.

"Hey? Excuse me?" I called at the front desk ringing the small bell. No one was there. "I just need to use your phone." My phone rang in my hand. A call? I answered it.

"Hello, this is Makoto-" a breathy voice interrupted me

"I wouldn't call the police" my blood froze, "You left your hotel room door unlocked" the man sighed and there was a pause I was too scared to think, my voice failed me "poor Rei."

* * *

**Well, what did you think. Very sorry for any typos I typed this all on a touch screen so my fingers may have slipped a few times.**

**Hopefully you can forgive me.**

**review please. It keeps me posting!  
**

**Your writer,**

**EACT**


	2. The Storm Begins

**Hey readers,**

**Thanks for the great reviews. Sorry it takes me a few weeks to re-post. The college semester started and I've been seriously overloaded with homework. So thanks for your patience.**

**This chapter is a little shorter but not by much. I try and make them at least 5000 words. This one fell short just making it to 4000 (not including the author's notes.) I guess that's my OCD.**

**This chapter is where the shit starts to go down. I've obviously added my two OC'S the stalkers (oops spoiler) and there will be one more who will be the detective so I'm sorry if you hate OC'S cause I did for a long while. However this story would be impossible without them so show them a little love.**

**Obviously I don't own Free! Cause then I wouldn't have to write fan fictions about them. If I did then Makoto would be front and center ALL the time. And there would be tons of angst. Cause I'm**

**A FREAK**

**And I love that shit.**

* * *

MAKOTO'S POV

I dropped my phone, not caring as it shattered to pieces on the cold tile beneath my bare feet, before I knew it I was running back to my room, with speed that would have made Rei jealous. The cold bit into my feet, like freezing talons digging into my flesh. I reached the room and skidded to a stop.

I slammed open the door not caring about the loud 'BANG' it made when it hit the wall. Rei lurched up in his bed like it was a gunshot. My eyes scanned him quickly, he was fine.

He was fine.

He was fine. I kept repeating to myself. My breath heaved, my stomach tumbling, I pressed my palm to it and I stumbled. Finding the edge of his bed and burying my face into my hands. I sniffled, I had never been so scared, it still felt like my heart wasn't working properly. Why was this happening?

Before I knew it I was sobbing in relief and terror. I looked hysterical, I felt hysterical. I barely noticed Rei who was kneeling on the mattress behind me rubbing small circles on my back, I hiccupped trying to calm down.

"M-Makoto…what's wrong?" Rei asked, voice breaking in concern. I shook my head unable to speak, scattering tears around me in a sprinkle. He rubbed faster until his hand grew hot with friction on my back. Nagisa, Gou and Haru burst in, crowding shock still at the door trying to take in the scene before them. I couldn't look at them, I couldn't face them like this. I wiped my tears with the back of my forearm and dropped my head down further away from their gazes.

I realized I was almost wheezing, I was crying like a child, soft pitiful sobs racking my body. Nagisa bounded up to me trying to look in my face.

"What happened Mako-chan?" he asked sweetly, concern widening his eyes "Did you have a nightmare?" I wiped my eyes on my bare arm again and looked up at them. A nightmare.

I curled the bedding into my fingers.

"Yes…a nightmare."

* * *

HARU'S POV

I had been standing at the window looking down at the ocean when I heard the 'BANG' it startled me from my thoughts and I turned towards the door, even Nagisa who had been sleeping soundly had sat up. What was that?

"That sounded like it came from next door" Nagisa said, a small ounce of fear in his voice. Next door was Makoto and Rei's room. I was at the door in an instant, curious. My feet warm in my socks. Gou nearly collided with us as she too came running. Their door was open and we looked in. The sight froze me in my tracks.

There sat Makoto on the edge of the bed, crying almost hysterically. Head buried in his hands, hair falling like an olive-colored veil around his face. His shoulders heaved. Rei was doing his best to comfort him, but was failing.

Tears were dropping from his chin and rolling down his bare chest. I could see them shining in the glow from the desk lamp, which Rei flicked on.

I stepped forward, but Nagisa burst past me and gently touched Makoto's face trying to look in his eyes.

"What happened Mako-chan? Did you have a nightmare?" Makoto hiccupped and sniffled looking up at us. The sight was heart breaking. His eyes were brimming with tears, face slightly flushed, he looked like a child who had just been told their pet died. It shattered me. I could hear a small gasp from Gou and I knew she too had crumbled. If I wasn't so concerned it would have been adorable. I felt myself tear up as he looked away from me.

"Yes…" he looked down again "a nightmare."

**DAY FOUR**

I had not slept at all last night after that incident, I could only see Makoto's face, sobbing and flushed in my mind every time I closed my eyes. A nightmare? He had said it was, but about what? I rolled over in my bed, Nagisa was sleeping deeply, snores nearly vibrating the room. I had never seen Makoto cry like that… I wonder if he knew how much he was worrying me. Probably not. With my thoughts preoccupied daylight came quickly.

Makoto had left before dawn leaving a note by his bedside.

**Walking on beach. See you there :3**

**-Makoto**

It seemed cheery enough, he was probably embarrassed about last night. I met with everyone in the lobby, we were all in our beach clothes. I couldn't wait to get to the aster. The atmosphere was awkward between us. Everyone wanted to talk about last night, but at the same time no one really wanted to.

I hadn't really looked at the hotel we had chosen, it was expensive looking with glass doors and a shiny oak receptionist desk, a man in a uniform and valet hat sat there reading a newspaper. There were deep reds and browns, in the furniture and the curtains, even the tile had a red hue.

Rei touched my arm, silently guiding me to the door, but as we were leaving the desk clerk ran up to me, stopping us with a

"Hey wait!" we did. We let him catch up "your friend is Makoto Tachibana right? We found her phone on the floor this morning while cleaning. It was broken…but nothing too bad we just had to put the battery back in." we all ignored the fact he had called Makoto a girl, we were all used to it by now. The clerk had a kind face, he was young yet a few scattered wrinkled lines his face like threads.

He put it in my hand and I looked at it, the screen had a small crack in the corner, he had dropped it.

"Thank you" Gou said politely, "we'll make sure _**he **_gets it." The clerk nodded, with somewhat of a confused expression, and went back to his post. I continued to stare at the phone.

"What's wrong, Haru-chan?" Rei asked following my focus to the phone.

"Makoto said he had a nightmare" they all nodded at me expectantly like I was a detective revealing the killer, "we all heard his door 'bang' last night…if Makoto had a nightmare why did he run _into_ his room and why was his phone down here?"

"That's right…" Nagisa said placing a finger on his cheek thinking, puffing out his cheeks. "That doesn't make sense." No it did not. I flipped open Makoto's phone. There was a new message.

"Um…Haru-chan? Isn't that a breach of privacy?" Rei asked inching back, I paused. But then I remembered Makoto's face last night and continued, clicking on the new message.

**UNKNOWN NUMBER**

**Don't worry, as long as you keep the cops out of it your friends are safe.**

I was speechless, I must have looked panicked because Rei yanked the phone from me and Nagisa's nervous voice shook

"What does it say?" I couldn't believe it, I couldn't think, I couldn't understand. Someone was threatening Makoto? My best friend?

"It says "don't worry, as long as you keep the cops out of it your friends are safe."" Rei flipped the phone closed, I stared at my empty hands where the phone had been, my mind sluggishly trying to process what it all meant. When I looked up the others were just as shocked as I was. Gou had her hands pressed over her mouth. I looked back to my hands.

"Who is it from?" she asked through her fingers, Rei shrugged, then flipped the phone back open.

"They started 4 days ago. He's had 8 texts from this number and 1 phone call at 11:24 last night." The words sunk in, my mind felt numb.

"That's right about when Mako-chan came into the room all upset" Nagisa concluded "he didn't have a nightmare did he?"

My mind flew to that man on the beach. That was him wasn't it? I searched my memories trying to remember the man's face. All I remembered was shadows.

I heard myself speak but barley felt my lips move

"What did the other texts say?" finally I dropped my hands and looked up, Rei was scrolling through them with a confused expression.

"They don't make sense…like they are taken out of context or something" he paled pushing up his glasses. "But apparently this person has been to Makoto's house." The baseball bat.

"Did Makoto ever reply?" Gou asked, I stared ahead not really seeing anything. Why was this happening? To Makoto of all people. He was always so kind and caring… the red in the tile seemed to get darker the longer I stared at it.

"Yes. Once he asked "who is this?" and the person wrote back "a fan."" Nagisa looked like he was about to throw up and Gou wrapped her arms around him comfortingly "It sounds like this person is much closer to him than he realizes…they sound…dangerous."

"A stalker" Nagisa said emotionlessly. That in itself scared me. He suddenly came to life, tears burst through his eyelids "It's a stalker isn't it!?" the clerk looked up from his desk at the sudden outburst, but soon went back to his work.

"So it seems" Rei said softly. Gou stroked the blonde's hair.

"B-but why Mako-chan?" Nagisa said desperately "why him?" why not? I knew why. Makoto was so nice to people, so considerate. I'd seen many people become obsessed with him, my mind flew back to the time I was walking in the hall and saw that girl with his picture in her locker, back then I thought that was extreme...but never this extreme.

Suddenly the phone buzzed snapping us all from our thoughts, Rei looked at it eyes widening slightly.

"It's them."

"Well read it already" Gou snapped, eyes hard. I swallowed. I almost didn't want to know what it said.

**UNKNOWN NUMBER**

**It's not nice to read other people's private messages.**

When Rei read it out loud we all involuntarily looked around us.

"Are you kidding me?" Gou whispered fiercely, anger consumed her features, we saw no one. "How the hell did Makoto handle that for 4 days? No wonder he broke down last night!"

"Should we text back?" Nagisa asked hanging on Rei's arm, peering at the phone in his grasp. As if in reply the phone lit up once again.

**UNKNOWN NUMBER**

**Makoto looks beautiful right now. If only you could see him.**

Rei made a sound that sounded like a choke. I looked up sharply, his eyes were closed.

"What?" I asked, worry made my heart skip beats, Rei didn't answer, my eyes grew wider "What?" I repeated more forcefully, my voice sounded like a dying wisp in my throat. Rei took a deep breath and read

"I-it says… "Makoto looks beautiful right now. If only you could see him."" The silence was deafening. We shared an expression of horror. Nagisa exclaimed

"B-but how can someone see us and Mako-chan at the same time?" the answer was simple, I understood immediately.

There was two of them. Two stalkers working together. My heart nearly stopped and I had to force myself to breathe.

"There's two." My expression faded into nothingness, I'm sure I looked dead inside. In a way I was. "Nagisa, Rei, Gou go look for Makoto...I'm going to call the police."

* * *

MAKOTO'S POV

I had snuck out before dawn, I needed fresh air. After my break down in front of my friends I was so ashamed of not only how weak I was but also how I couldn't protect my friends, I just needed to get away.

I dug my toes into the sand and looked out over the waves. To think the ocean wouldn't be one of my top fears anymore. I crouched down and put my fingers in the tide. Siting crouched like that for I don't know how long. My fingers were pruned by the gentle rise and fall of the tide.

Finally I stood and continued to walk down the beach, the sun was just coming up, sending a glittering array of colors sprawling across the water. I watched it for a moment.

I had been so scared for Rei in that moment, my heart still fluttered to think about it. When I had looked up in that room and saw the concerned faces of my friends, it had not made me feel comforted. It made me feel worse. Why?

Haru-chan. His face… I'd never seen him look so surprised. He looked speechless, I had seen his eyes tear up. To know I had caused him to feel like that…I felt guilty…

I crouched again and traced my finger through the sand, I wasn't much of an artist but the orca that turned out was half way decent. I laughed at it. A true laugh and it made me feel better. My laughter grew harder, they had always said I was like an orca. A damn whale.

Was it because I was so black and white? Surely not a killer although that's what the comparison implied…I wasn't fat…so why? I sat lost in thought for a moment my smile dancing across my lips, sorting out the possibilities.

The sun was nearly up by now, only a small silver of it still remained hidden by the horizon.

For a moment I felt all right, I felt safe in the sun by the water, thinking of my friends. I leant my head back to take in the rays of warmth. I pushed my sunglasses up to the top of my head and I closed my eyes with a small smile.

"You look beautiful, Makoto." I froze, slowly I opened my eyes. And the sun went black.

* * *

HARU'S POV

It was almost 10AM by now.

I had never run so quickly. They have said I'm slow on land, but I was running so fast right now that I turned heads as I ran through the small town. My bare feet were slapping painfully on the pavement.

I hadn't had time to finish getting dressed, I was in my swim trunks. After all I hadn't expected this to happen, I had expected to spend a fun day on the beach with my friends…not be running to meet up with Nagisa who had just called to tell me my best friend was missing.

Well, they couldn't find him. But right now I was so paranoid and worked up over the whole situation that I immediately thought of the worst case scenario.

I had called the police, who were willing to look at the evidence and asked me to come to the station, I did, but it proved to be a waste of time. Nagisa and Rei had called by now and told me the beach was Makoto-less and they had split up to search the town.

And when I told the police (quite hysterically and desperately) they insisted they couldn't do anything until he had been "missing" for 24 hours. Those idiots. I had left a printed transcript of Makoto's texts with them and they said:

"We'll see what we can do, go look for your friend for now, let us know when you find him." I was so frustrated that my eyes watered and my throat closed up. I had left the station running, like I am now.

It had been almost 4 hours since we had realized Makoto's secret. Damn him, keeping secrets from me. Doesn't he know I'm his best friend? Doesn't he know he can tell me anything?

My toes finally touched sand, but my pace never slowed. My eyes were damp, worry making it hard to breath, making my heart beats hurt. My feet were kicking up sand in a large cloud and it stung my wet eyes, sticking like glue to my sweat, everything seemed to hurt on me, my muscles…my breaths…my thoughts.

Finally I spotted Nagisa in the distance, the usual hyper blonde was searching the thick, knee-high foliage that separated the sand from the pavement. Hunched over prodding around it with his hands.

Why was he searching there? There was only one reason. It was morbid, and very obvious.

…In case a body had been dumped.

I almost couldn't take it, I stopped running and hunched over, hands on my knees. Head low, my breathing hitched. Why Makoto? Damn it, why? Couldn't you trust me? Look what you've gotten yourself into! Tears threatened to burst from my eyes. But instead, rage consumed me.

How dare Nagisa look there like that? I heard myself shout before I thought.

"Nagisa! Why are you looking there?" I screamed, he turned to look at me, a terrified look widening his eyes, I felt hot trails burn down my cheeks. I shook my head, scattering the tears in the air. "Go look for Makoto! Damn it! Why aren't you looking for him!" my shoulders heaved and I hiccupped dropping to my knees "don't you care at all!?"

The silence was deafening. Nagisa looked away almost ashamed, I buried my fists in the sand. Damn you Makoto…

My face was twisted in something I'm sure was a cross between agony, despair and rage. I was breathing heavily through my mouth, tears and nose running. I heard Nagisa's phone ring and I looked up, he answered it, paled and hung up. He didn't look at me, almost as if he was afraid to. Finally he looked over to me, face solemn verging on emotionless. His usually bright eyes dim, like a dead fish.

"That was Rei." He said, voice flat. Quiet so I had to hold my breath to hear him, something about his voice sent shivers down my skin, I saw a tear dribble out of his dim eyes. "They found…" his body? oh god no. please no…

No.

Please…please…no.

No. "They found some blood in the sand." I didn't know what to think, I pushed myself up to my feet, my arms almost numb.

"Let's go." Nagisa nodded, we walked in silence, both looking at our feet, as if the sand held clue we had overlooked. Both lost in our own thoughts.

"Haru…" Nagisa's weak voice brushed gently in my ears, I didn't look up "I'm sorry…" I didn't know what for. I'm sorry…I'm sorry…

_Makoto..._

* * *

MAKOTO'S POV

I blinked awake. Where ever I was it was completely dark. I pushed myself up, fingers cold on the hard ground beneath me. My bones ached. I blinked memories rushing back to me. I sat up quickly, head pounding yet numb at the same time. I brought my fingers to my face, my skin was sticky, smelling of iron. There was blood on my face. Was I hurt? How badly? Where was I?

I looked around, seeing nothing but black. I felt myself being to hyperventilate. Calm down, Makoto. I scolded myself. I focused on trying to decide how big the room was. Anything to preoccupy myself from the terror which was tearing my mind to shreds. I reached out but before I could touch a wall, a door opened throwing the room into a bright light. I heard myself scream, desperately covering my eyes.

I was blind. Tears burst from my eyes as my pupils tried to adjust. Before I could get used to the sudden intensity of the light, I was being dragged by my shirt collar across the floor and out of the door way. My shirt was choking me and my hands found the wrist of the arm that was pulling me. Luckily the floor was smooth, I trashed. Another hand buried into my hair and twisted it, more tears sprung.

"P-please!" I begged, trying to crane my neck up to see who was dragging me. I was dropped and I immediately recoiled, turning to face my attacker, struggling to stand up. My head swimming from my injury. I swayed and was forced back to the ground by the nausea.

I was in a bright, windowless room. My eyes blurry from the sudden change. I squinted to examine the man's face, it was the man from school the day of the typhoon. He was built large, larger than me, late 30's, thick goatee. He walked to the door. "Wait!" I shouted. He didn't.

"Don't worry, Makoto." He said, throwing a glance behind his shoulder, the black circles under his eyes shrunk as his brown eyes widened in a large grin that showed his gums "We're going to be friends." The door slammed, and once again I was alone. Tears dampened my eyes, Haru please…help me.

* * *

HARU'S POV

Nagisa and I finally reached Rei and Gou, who were crowded around a spot in the sand. When we got closer I felt my heart skip. A pair of sunglasses I immediately recognized as Makoto's were tossed in the sand, one lens shattered, a stain of blood soaked into the grains of the beach. Not enough to be fatal…but enough to know Makoto was hurt badly enough that he should probably go to the hospital.

Nothing was said between us, I saw Rei staring at Nagisa's dead expression. And at me and my dry tear struck face. Sand was all over my skin.

"You ok?" Gou asked, placing a hand on the blonde's shoulder, he just nodded staring at the blood. I crouched down and plucked the sunglasses out of the sand, shaking the grit from the broken glass.

"What did the police say?" Rei asked, he snapped a picture of the blood with his phone.

"They're no help." I said, surprised my voice was so frail, I cleared my throat and spoke again "but-"

My phone buzzed and interrupted me, for a moment I thought it was Makoto and my heart leapt in joy, but in a moment it crashed as I realized that not only did Makoto not have his phone, but it was Makoto's phone that buzzed. I was beginning to hate that sound. I fished out his phone.

I remembered being with him, hearing his phone buzz, noticing the changes in his personality, seeing his distress…how could I call myself his best friend when I didn't even help him when he was right in front of me? When I had noticed the changes? Why hadn't I pressed it?

**UNKNOWN NUMBER**

**Don't worry. He's fine. I just want to be friends.**

Somehow, that put me at ease. I sighed, we knew there were two stalkers working together. The tone in this text seemed different than the others. Almost…childish. He had to be sick in the head.

"Haru..?" I heard Rei ask, I ignored him focused only on the phone in my hands. I texted back furiously.

**MAKOTO**

**Why are you doing this?**

**UNKNOWN NUMBER**

**I owe him. I said I'd pay him back. We'll be friends.**

**MAKOTO**

**I don't understand**

Please…I don't understand…I don't understand.

"Haru?" I looked up at Gou, "what is it? Is it them?" I nodded and showed them the messages. Rei grabbed his hair and kicked the sand violently

"I DON'T UNDERSTAND!" he screamed, his voice echoing. The empty beach stood still. "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT?!" He spun in a circle arms wide, as if he was threatening the stalkers, as if they were watching. His glasses slid down his nose, wet from tears. "HUH? WHAT!?"

"That's it! That's all I can take!" Gou said, voice low, dangerous. "I'm going to the police station…and they ARE going to help us."

Help him.

* * *

MAKOTO'S POV

I had lost track of time. It seemed like hours since I had been thrown in this bright, empty room. I had tried the door many times, kicked it even. Slamming my shoulder against it so many times that when I pulled back my sleeve a nasty, black bruise spanned the length of my arm from shoulder to elbow. It hurt so badly I figured I had broken something. But at least it took away from the pain in my head.

Finally I had sat in the middle of the hospital like room, hugging my knees to myself. I looked pitiful, with dried blood caked on my face, hair a mess and shirt wrinkled. I was actually somewhat thankful that there was no mirror in the room, as I could only imagine what I looked like.

Why me? I was never one to wallow in self-pity, but right now I couldn't stop asking the same question over and over.

Why me? But I suppose, on the bright side. I'm glad it was me and not someone else. No one should go through this. Suddenly the door opened, almost meekly, gently. Like someone was trying to see me and not be noticed. It was open just large enough to peek through, I saw a shadow and an eye. Staring at me. Blue eyes. I felt tempted to run over there and yank open the door, but I found myself frozen to the ground, our eyes staring seemingly into each other's souls.

It was then I realized there were two different captors. And I turned my eyes away with an overwhelming sense of defeat. Although I tried to hide it.

"Hey, Makoto…you all right?" the voice. I knew it from somewhere. From where? My eyes leapt back to the single eye which peered at me. The voice was genuine, like he honestly was concerned.

"Y-yes?"

"Ok. Um, I mean…I'm glad." The door opened slightly wider, and a pale hand snuck through and left something on the ground just inside the door, then just as quickly as it appeared the hand was recoiled and the door closed partially again. I looked at the crumpled object on the ground. A 1,000 yen bill.

"I said I'd pay you back…I always keep my word."

* * *

**As you know reviews keep me posting. And I'm not promising this will be soon (if I even continue this story) because college is so intense. Sorry. But seriously reviews do help keep me interested.**

**Selfish? Sorry.**

**Anyways. Tell me what you want to see, or what you predict will happen. I'm not guaranteeing anything but we'll see.**

**(I'm debating yaoi Non-con) heh heh. Sorry if that's not your cup of tea. It won't be to descriptive. Much Much Much violence to come.**

**How did I do with Makoto's and Haru's relationship? Brotherly? Borderline Yaoi? Or just right?**

**Again sorry for typos.**

**Your writer,**

**EACT**

**Stay FREE! (see what I did there?)**


	3. The Storm Rages on

**Sorry for the wait. Actually I didn't think I would continue this story but I saw all the reviews and wanted to satisfy your desires (PS. I just winked.) So here's the update! Enjoy chapter 3! ._. PSS. WARNINGS THIS CHAPTER BOYXBOY KISSING AND RIN'S MOUTH.**

**Note * italicized like always means flashback/memory**

**Yesterday, upon the stairs,**  
**I met a man who wasn't there**  
**He wasn't there again today**  
**I wish, I wish he'd go away.**

**When I came home last night at three**  
**The man was waiting there for me**  
**But when I looked around the hall**  
**I couldn't see him there at all!**  
**Go away, go away, don't you come back any more!**  
**Go away, go away, and please don't slam the door ...**

**-William Hughes Mearns**

**Special thanks to MaliceHawk for great ideas and this amazing poem!**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

HARU'S POV

"_I can't wait to get home, Haru-chan!" I looked over at my enthusiastic friend who was hanging onto the handle dangling above his head, the train was packed full of travelers. Stuffy with body odor, perfume and sweat. It almost made me dizzy. I tightened my grip on my handle. "Do you want to come to my house to study when we get home-?" my friend's voice died in his throat, and he emitted a small squeak of surprise. _

_My head snapped over to him, his face was flushed with a bright pink blush, which was slowly spreading over his features. I blinked. What was he doing? My eyes traveled his body looking for what made him make such a noise. When I saw it my mouth fell open. _

_There was a hand, gripping firmly onto the back of Makoto's pants. A man's hand. My eyes followed the arm up to a sleazy looking business man, my friend looked ready to cry and in the heat of the moment I grabbed the wrist of the pervert and squeezed as hard as I could yanking it from the pants of my best friend._

"_Hey! What the hell are you doing?" I snapped, I couldn't believe the rage that was washing over me. Torrents of hatred, anger. Disgust. Several eyes turned towards the commotion and the man yanked free from my grasp before backing into the crowd. I heaved "Damn him." I hadn't realized I had cursed until Makoto touched my shoulder._

"_Its ok." It was not ok._

"_It is not ok, Makoto! That-that pervert!" My friend's hand tightened on my shoulder, I looked at him and he shot me a reassuring smile, his eyes creasing into small half-moons. _

"_It was just crowded, he just bumped into me…" I breathed trying to calm myself, we both knew that was false, yet Makoto was choosing to disregard it as a mistake. To give a stranger the benefit of the doubt. How naive. _

It had taken him a month to convince me to let him ride the train alone, after that. If I had gotten so upset then, image how upset I was now.

That incident shied in comparison to this.

It had been 26 long hours since the morning of Makoto's disappearance, and the last text, I sat in my hotel room by the phone, while the others searched the coastal village. I had been given the most difficult task of all…

I picked up the phone and dialed.

Ring, Ring…Ring. Click.

"Hello?"

"Hello, Mr. Tachibana? It's Haru."

* * *

MAKOTO'S POV

**DAY UNKNOWN (DAY 5)**

I woke on the cold, dirty, hard ground. Cement, my limbs ached. The gash on my head was dry and scabbed, some time ago I had taken off my shirt so I could hold it up to my wound as a makeshift bandage, it had worked and the bleeding had stopped. But my shirt had been reduced to a soggy lump in the corner of the bright room.

My arm throbbed, turning purple from where I had bashed it against the door, I pushed myself up amazed that I had actually fallen asleep and with trembling fingers I felt the bruise, gasping sharply in pain. I had no doubt that I had fractured it in the desperation of trying to escape.

I hadn't been fed. I hadn't had a drink. I didn't know what time it was. The dull hunger I had felt was replaced by gut wrenching starvation and some time ago my tongue had become too dry to moisten my chapped lips. It had to have been at least a day since I …since I was kidnapped.

It was still hard for me to admit it. I, Makoto Tachibana, had been abducted. I did not know why, I did not know by whom. A boy from my class, and a strange man from the courtyard. Nameless people I did not understand...

With trembling fingers I felt the gash on my head again. Had it been safe to sleep?

I pushed myself up off the floor, my joints crackling like fire, until I stood swaying slightly by the door. Hunger made my head swim.

Swim. Haru? Where was Haru? Once again I had to convince myself that my dire situation was in fact just that, a dire situation. That this predicament was not a prank. It was so hard to believe, why would anyone want me? I had never hurt anyone. There was nothing special about me…so, why?

I pounded my fist on the door, surprised that I still had so much strength.

"Hey!" my voice however…did not. It sounded like I had been screaming for hours, my voice raw, wispy. Then again, I probably had been screaming. I coughed, my head pounding as I did. "HEY!" there was nothing. Not a single sound from the other side of the door. It was so deafeningly silent that it echoed, making me dizzy. I sunk down to my knees, closing my eyes, my fist still balled on the door.

Did they plan to feed me? Or did they plan to leave me here until I starved?

Where they going to kill me? My eyes flew open and I jumped to my feet, my fist smashing into the door repeatedly with a new found fear fed strength. "HEY!...HEY, ANSWER ME!" my frantic pounding almost drown out my own cries. "PLEASE!" I paused "…PLEASE!" I backed up from the door a tear slipping down my cheek. No one would answer me.

"P-PLEASE!" I was begging. "PLEA-"

"Shut the hell up!" the door flew inwards as a boot kicked it in, I recoiled, the door nearly striking me in the face, I tripped and fell on my rear on the cement. I gave a small cry, goose bumps erupting from my skin at the sudden noise. I cowered. "Let me guess, you wanted food, huh?!" I felt myself nod. Which was a mistake. He crossed the room in a stride and before I had time to react, backhanded me; hard enough for my vision to swim, I fell back on the floor. "Let me tell you something, boy. People don't always get what they want in life. There will always be people like me…like you…who crush people's dreams."

I said nothing, like me? Pushing myself up onto my elbow, then to my feet I looked at him, tears damp in my eyes. I scanned him trying to place him. Who was he? He was huge, bigger than me, bigger than I originally thought when I had last seen him. Trimmed black goatee, small brown eyes, dark circles, pockmarked face, he was unattractive, a permanent, ugly scowl twisting his lips … he noticed me looking.

I looked away quickly but he had already lunged for me, he twisted his fingers in my hair violently, I felt some strands rip from my scalp, I gasped and before I knew it I had struck out, landing a punch on the man's midsection.

He made an "oof" sound, and I panicked. For a moment I heard myself apologize, I had hurt him. Makoto Tachibana doesn't hurt people. Idiot, I scolded myself. Don't be an idiot. _Run._

Apparently he had expected the strike as much as I had, because as his fingers fell away and he doubled over his eyes were round in shock. I panicked and dashed madly for the door, as my body passed the doorjamb, I realized with a sinking heart I should have hit him again while I had the opportunity, to buy me more time. My bare feet slapped the cold cement as I ran. I heard him after me.

Predator and prey. I had nearly cried that day the stray cat I had been feeding brought me a dead mouse. My mother assured me that it was the cat's way of thanking me and showing me affection…I now knew how that mouse had felt.

Outside of the room was a long hallway, which was too long to be a house. I passed a large window and was stunned to a stop. Skidding several inches before I could halt. I looked out the window and down.

Down upon the pool of the Iwatobi SC Returns. Our old swimming club.

It had been closed for several weeks as they were doing renovations, Coach Goro Sasabe had Haru, Nagisa, Rei and I help him paint a "We'll be back soon!" poster for the front.

Yes, there! My eyes spotted a large dark blue paint stain down the hall a ways. That's where Nagisa had dropped his paint cup!

I heard the man's footsteps closing in and I took off running again. Swelling with hope, thankful that while I worked here a few months ago I had learned where the employee exit was in the back. I made my way there.

I ran blindly, turning the corners, it was dim and I could barely see. I tripped once on a box of tools, a crow bar skittering across the ground noisily. I picked myself off the floor and ran harder, my footsteps pounding, echoing in the hall.

There. It's there! Just a little further!

I nearly screamed when I collided roughly with a body, as it threw me backwards off my feet. As I hit the ground a shot of pain from my fractured arm jolted me, I had to bite my tongue to keep myself from wailing. Please no, I was so close. I opened my eyes. The body I had hit had fared no better and he too was on the floor.

"Kei! Stop him!" I bolted to my feet, as the man's voice thundered behind me, whipping my head back to see him as he was just down the hall. I took a step forward only to be met by a pair of piercing blue eyes I knew too well. The boy from class. His name was Kei?

I heard a crackling noise, my vision tunneled from fear, the sound clicking like a sharp spark.

"Yes, father." An explosion of light, then nothing. I had been so close…

* * *

HARU'S POV

**DAY 5**

I was sitting in the same police station I was yesterday, Makoto had been gone 32 hours and 34 minutes now and the police finally decided that something was wrong. We showed them the texts, the picture of the blood in the sand, a picture of Makoto and I … I sat here. Currently giving a statement about the man I had seen staring at Makoto on the beach the other day.

"He was big." After all I hadn't_ seen_ him, there had been too many shadows and he was gone in an instant. Had he seen me?

Nagisa and Rei were back at the hotel room getting some rest, none of us had slept since Makoto had gone missing. I knew they weren't sleeping now, Rei would be searching the internet for hints, researching stalker cases, and Nagisa would be trying to cheer him up…both would be ruined inside. Emotional wrecks. Gou was taking a young detective to see the blood stain.

"Kid, you're going to have to give me more than that." I'm trying. I'm sorry.

"Dark hair…" the detective, whom I didn't know the name of, groaned at me. He leaned forward on his desk shaking his pen at me, I sat with my hands folded in my lap.

"Look, Haru…can I call you Haru?"

"No." that nickname was reserved for Makoto. 32 hours, 35 minutes. If saw him again…no, _when _I saw him again I'd never tell him to never call me it again. I'd tell him to call me it until his lips grew tired, just so I could hear him, if I heard his voice I would know he was safe, he was ok.

"Ok…Haruka. We've been in here a half an hour and all you've given me is big with dark hair. Big with dark hair describes half of Japan, you are going to have to try and be more descriptive than tha-"

"DAMN IT! I SAID I DON'T KNOW! DON'T YOU THINK I'D TELL YOU IF I DID?" one of my hands slammed on his desk, making him and the things on it jump. A picture frame fell flat, he looked at me with an unreadable expression and fixed the frame. My heart throbbed painfully, tears threatening to burst from my eyelids. I am suffering, Makoto.

"Haruka. Kid." I am not a kid. "I need you to calm down ok? We don't even know for certain Mr. Tachibana is in any danger…we don't even know if the blood is his. You are just jumping to conclusions. Is he even being stalked? We don't know. Not unless you can give us more than a few texts and a "big, dark haired guy"…now I'm not going to deny that the texts are wrong. Something is defiantly going on here, but you losing your temper will not help. Understand?"

I can only nod, my fist curling tighter on his desk.

"I'm sorry." He taps his pen on his desk, looking at me, surveying me. I didn't want to look at him so instead I looked around the office which we were occupying. The furniture was wood, except for a metal filing cabinet in the corner near the window. Although the blinds were open the room was dim, dust could be seen swimming in the light streaming through the dirty glass. The walls were dark green, they seemed to loom on either side of me, closing me in. The gold pen in his hand shining in the sun despite the shadows consuming it…

"Why don't you try and get some rest?" suddenly I feel myself jerk, my head snaps up, my eyes widening staring at the pen.

"He had a beard…and a jacket. He was wearing a jacket." I was thrilled I could recall so much, things I hadn't even realized I had noticed, but the officer looked less than pleased. "A school jacket." I added

"He was a student?"

"No…" I looked at my balled fist. "A teacher." I tapped my chest above my heart, "a school jacket, the crest was different than a student…he was a teacher." The detective scribbled madly on his notepad. He looked up at me, although I avoided eye contact I could feel his eyes. I fiddled with my fingers, eyes on the pen.

"How did you see that but nothing else in the shadows?" I thought for a moment.

"…it shone...in the sun" I looked up at him and he rose an eyebrow, my eyes rested on his pen again "it was gold."

"Schools with gold crests? That narrows it down a lot, good work kid. That'll give us something to work on!" He smiled and a small flutter of hope tickled my mind. "Why don't you go get some rest?" I blinked, the thought of sleep nauseating me, I shook my head "food?" he offered, he was trying to give me an excuse to leave his office. I shrugged, suddenly thirsty, I stood.

I excused myself and walked to the door, his voice stopped me.

"Hey…" I didn't turn, my hand tightened on the door handle. "Keep up hope, kid. The moment you lose hope is the moment whoever is behind this wins." I leave.

Don't let them win, Makoto. I won't lose to them.

I briefly looked back at the detective who took my statement, he was busy ripping out the page he had taken my notes on and was burying it under a stack of paper. With a sinking heart I confirmed yesterday's observation…the police would be no help.

I pulled out my cell phone and flipped it open, stepping outside of the police station. I dialed a number quickly, pressing it to my ear.

It rung. And rung.

Pick up. Please, pick up.

"Hello?"

"It's Haru. I need your help, Rin."

* * *

MAKOTO'S POV

I woke again, my head foggy, it felt like I was underwater. Trying to breath, slow motion, fighting to the top. Reality returned like my head breaking through the surface, sudden and dramatic, taking those sweet, deprived first breaths.

I blink and look around. I am in the cold, bright room again. This time thin, wire like chains are wrapped around me. Encircling my wrists behind me and my arms to my sides. Only my legs are unchained. With difficulty I manage to get myself into a kneeling position. I look down at my bare chest and a large red burn on my left –by my shoulder, gleams at me, I had been tazed.

Kei…the boy's name was Kei. He had seemed so nice before…but none the less he was the one who had electrocuted me…and he called the big man his father...

Blinking to clear my head, I shudder resisting the urge to bash my head on the ground in despair. I had been so close to freedom! My throat closed with withheld tears and I rested my forehead on the cold, dirty cement. Finally allowing dry sobs to escape my throat. Why me?

I don't care if I sound pitiful, or cowardly or…damn it. Tears leak down my face onto the floor, my stomach in shreds of agony from mal-nourishment. I hadn't ate breakfast the day I had been kidnapped. I was being a child. I shouldn't be crying over missing a meal for a day or two, or however long it had been… I wasn't crying because of my famished state, I was crying because I feared that they were planning to never feed me, to kill me.

Haru…Nagisa, Rei.

They were probably looking around the beach for me, how would they know that I had been brought back to our town - ?

I didn't hear the door open.

"Hey! Tachibana, get up!" it was the man with the goatee. He loomed in the door, nearly taking up the whole space. He held a bowl, the smell of food hit me like a wave and I scrambled to my feet, almost nauseous with hope. "You're pathetic…I don't know what my son see's in you. First you crush his dreams. Then he says he loves-" the man scowls, cutting off his sentence.

Loves me? Sees in me? That boy, Kei…?

He holds out the bowl. "You want food?" it was stew, I found myself nodding frantically.

"Yes, I do…please-"

"Then here." The man tipped the contents of the bowl onto the floor, letting it explode like a brown firework between us. "You can lick it up." The floor was filthy, dust and dirt, spider webs, dead bugs. I swallowed heavily, my stomach grumbling loudly. I wouldn't… "Do it."

I shook my head backing away.

"I SAID DO IT!" my eyes burned with tears and I dropped to my knees heavily, my knee caps cracked on the floor. I looked at the liquid, which was spreading across the dusty floor towards me.

"Please-" the man lunged at me and grabbed my hair again, slamming my face into the wet cement, stew splashed up on my face, I closed my eyes, my nose trickling with blood.

"Do it…" slowly I took my first lick, the stew was okay but the dust slid down my tongue like cotton, the dirt like sandpaper. I wanted to gag. I took another lick, the man seemed satisfied because his hold on my hair loosened and he stood. Staring down at me. "My boots too." Some of my food had splashed onto his dirty, muddy work boots as well, I stared at them. I couldn't…

A harsh kick to the ribs sent me sprawling in the stew. I cried out, before I could recover the man had drawn me up by my fractured arm and brought me face to face with him. I cried out, gritting my teeth against the pain. "My boy could have been the best…it was you, you took that away from him…" I was thrown back onto the floor, like a child disregarding a doll, he looked at me in disgust. "My boots…now."

And with a sinking heart full of shame. I did just that.

It was sometime later now, the floor was still splattered with stew. He had told me:

"Have this mess cleaned up by the time I get back or I'll make sure you can never swim again." I couldn't bring myself to do it though, after I had licked his boots I had retched in the corner near my bloody shirt, and my stomach lurched every time I even thought of the brown sea of food around me.

A new problem was arising very quickly. I had to go to the bathroom. I fidgeted uncomfortably, pressing my legs together, trying not to smell or see the splatter of stew around me. And the vomit was beginning to stink. I pulled myself into a corner and wedged myself in, burying my nose in my shoulder the best I could to block the stench. My bladder stinging with strain.

"Hey, Makoto." My head whipped up, Kei stood by the door. I hadn't even heard him come in. He had closed the door behind him, head down, shy almost, a bucket and a cloth gripped tightly in his hands. It was now that I truly got to see him. He was an attractive boy, sharp boned face, blonde hair, blue eyes. Behind the baggy clothes he wore I could tell he was an athlete, smaller than me but nearly as tall. He got on his hands and knees,

And with the cloth began to clean the stew.

"But you're…you're dad" I heard myself say. My voice was weak. He looked up at me.

"He doesn't have to know" Kei reached into his back pocket, my eye watching his every move, I tensed. The tazer again?

No. A honey bun. He handed it towards me, but paused when he realized I was chained, he left the cloth and bucket where they sat and scooted over towards me. "I'm sorry. It's all I have." He held the bun to my lips. I looked at him, what was he trying to do? He kidnapped me… Kei pushed the bun past my lips, and the sweet dough hit me like a miracle; my stomach growling madly as I ate it from his hand. Screw it, I didn't care if I looked desperate, or weak…

Pathetic, Makoto.

Kei laughed genuinely and I couldn't help but smile.

"Thank you, Kei."

"You are thirsty?" I noticed in that moment, the blonde before me didn't speak Japanese well, he was an American. I looked at him and nodded, swallowing heavily trying desperately to work up some saliva, the honey bun was good, but sticky and dry and I could feel it sticking to the inside of my throat.

Kei leaned in his face uncomfortably close to mine, I pulled back but realized I was still in my corner. "I have no water." He was looking at me like every answer to the universe was written on my face, trying to read me.

His breath smelled of tea…mint…honey buns. It tickled my face as he breathed. He was so close.

"Never mind then…I can wait." I was breathless with fear, as the blonde leaned in even closer his cold hand gripped my bare shoulder, it made me yelp at the sudden contact, but my sudden sound was cut off abruptly

By Kei's lips. He was kissing me.

My mind raced, panicking as I tried to shoulder him off of me, but his fingernails dug into my bare flesh, drawing blood, and holding me in place. I couldn't breathe, I couldn't think. White fear paralyzed my mind.

"Makoto…" he drew back and I gasped for air, trembling in fear, those blue eyes of his bore into my green ones, they shone genuinely with affection, yet with a look hidden there that scared me. "You crushed me that day, Makoto. And since then… I have loved you."

* * *

HARU'S POV.

I had gone to the hotel room anyways, Samezuka was only a half an hour drive from the beach and Rin had gotten here in twenty, receiving a speeding ticket in the process. When he got out of the car, his red hair was disheveled and his face twisted into a frown of annoyance. He was pissed. After all I hadn't explained on the phone what was wrong, I had told him "Something's happened, I need you to meet me at the Costal Hotel on Main street, by the beach." And here we both were, 20 minutes later standing outside the large glass doors that lead to the lobby.

"What the fuck, Haru?" as I said, he was pissed. "What kind of phone call was that?" he heaved running his hands through his hair trying to smooth it, only making it worse in the process "I thought something was seriously wrong!"

"Rin…"

"And yet, here you are just standing here! I should have figured-"

"Rin." My friend stopped, and looked at me, his lips closing over his pointed teeth, the sneer now replaced by a confused firm pressed line.

"What?" his voice was still sharp from withheld annoyance and I bit my lip, looking at him only brought back memories of Makoto, my eyes watered. Rin noticed and his eyebrows lifted, face softening, his voice grew quiet "What?" he asked again, softly as if afraid to hear what I would say.

"It's Makoto, Rin." My voice wavered, Rin's expression never changed his eyes bore into me and I had to look away, my black hair falling like a veil in front of my face.

"What about him?"

"…He's…gone."

"Gone? What do you mea-?" he stopped short, mouth falling open, he breathed heavily once and then croaked "You mean…like…you mean he's…" Rin backed up almost tripping backwards off the curb, his voice cracked "You mean he's _dead?"_

What? No.

"No." I looked up at him, he had gone pale "No. He's been kidnapped, Rin." I couldn't help it, a tear slipped down my cheek "somebody took our Makoto." The red head scrubbed a hand over his face in relief and then stepped up to me, pulling me into a tight hug. More tears slipped free from my eyelids, they fluttered as I held him.

"We'll find this son of a bitch, Haru. Do you understand?" I nodded against his chest "and when we do we'll pay him back in full."

"And more." I added, my voice raw. I felt Rin nod.

"And more."

As we walked inside and made our way up to our room, I filled him in on all that had happened. I heard his breath catch in his throat as I read some of the texts, and when I showed him the picture of the blood… he smashed a fist into the side of the elevator, English profanities warbling from him like a foreign tongue.

Rei and Nagisa were, as I predicted, awake and researching. Rei on his bed typing madly, the clicks hard and furious and Nagisa. Oh, Nagisa. The usual hyper blonde was sitting on the window sill, the window wide open, balanced between the room and the three story drop to the pavement below. He was looking longingly over the ocean, his eyes dull.

"Yo, blondey." Nagisa's head snapped towards Rin "get the hell out of the window, you idiot. What if you fell?" Rin and Nagisa smiled in unison at the sight of us. I looked around the room. Where was Gou?

"Gou's still with the detective." Oh, right. The American detective. I nodded and took a seat by Rei on the bed, Nagisa too crawled from the window to join us. My red haired friend sat across from us eyeing the back of Rei's laptop, not looking at anything seemingly lost in thought. I sat cross legged on the mattress.

"Haru-chan, filled you in?" Nagisa asked Rin, I looked between them both for a moment and Rin nodded.

"We are going to find them…and we are going to make sure they know they messed with the wrong kid." The wrong kid? Makoto or Rin? I wasn't sure, but his small pep-talk cause Rei and Nagisa to grin, all in silent agreement.

"What did you find?" I turned my attention to the illuminated screen.

"There's not much I can do without clues, Haru…I ran a reverse phone number look up but it came up as a disposable cell phone." I quickly relayed what I had told the police officer, about the jacket…Rei's eyes light up with enthusiasm. "Good! … Good!" he typed madly.

"So what else have you been doing on here, glasses?" Rin asked using his forefinger to lightly tip the screen back so he could try to see. Rei paused his typing, we all watched him.

"Research." He said vaguely, we all cringed at his tone, it was dull, lifeless, defeated. We waited patiently for him to continue, my fingers digging into my ankles. What, Rei? "Apparently most of kidnap victims…" I squeezed tighter, my lungs tightening "are killed in the first 24 hours." It had already been nearly 35. It was 6 in the evening, our day had been wasted by the police.

Silence. Deathly, cold. Silence.

A car buzzed by outside the window and a seagull squawked noisly. And my breaths, they were as deep as my eyes, I trembled. Calm, be calm. "3 in 4 stalking victims knew their stalker…" the facts kept coming "74 percent of kidnapped children are murdered within 3 hours of abduction-"

Oh god…Makoto.

"Rei, stop!" a voice interrupted and the room was thrown into silence again, only someone's hard, desperate wheezes panted in the air. I realized, those breaths were mine.

My whole body was trembling, my eyes wide, mouth frozen in a gape as rough heaves burst past my lips. I was hyperventilating? Makoto…Makoto…my best friend. Couldn't be dead. Could he?

Rin's arms circled me pulling me in, he was cooing at me, whispering comfortingly. I didn't care if Nagisa and Rei were staring at me. I just didn't care.

"I-I'm sorry-" Rei began only to be interrupted by Rin once again, his chest rumbled against me as he spoke.

"Stuff it, glasses." My breathing slowed, my eyes heavy with withheld tears, feeling like at any moment they may burst from my skull. Rin patted my back. "Calm down, Haru. Don't forget how tough our Orca is." I stared at the bed spread, what an ugly color for a blanket "remember that time we saw that bully teasing Ran?" I couldn't help but smile at the memory of my best friend defending his sister. "Or when he stopped that purse snatcher?" that memory too, like the last, made me smile.

"Yeah." My voice was shaky, I pulled myself away from the red head, still looking at the bedding. "He's going to be ok." I said aloud really only trying to convince myself.

"Yes." Rin agreed "he is." He gave my back one last pat then turned to Rei. "Found anything on the school crest?" I tuned them out my gaze focused on the color of the blanket. An ugly burnt brown.

"_Hey, Haru?" Makoto's voice snapped me from my thoughts and I stared at my feet, which were scuffling across the pavement. We were both wrapped tightly in coats, mittens swaddling our fingers, our noses red, breaths in white clouds in front of us._

"_Makoto." Snow was up to our ankles. _

"_Have you decided yet?" I looked at my best friend walking besides me, we were on our way to school, young second years, the brown haired male looked at me with a goofy smile, droopy green eyes gleaming with enthusiasm. I didn't remember what I was supposed to be deciding. He read it on my face and groaned good heartedly "you forgot again!" he slung his arm around my shoulders, I tried to shoulder him off "on our graduation suits of course!" _

"_Graduation is in two years…"_

"_Yes." I sighed. The idiot didn't make sense sometimes, before I had realized he had dragged me past the line of stores that were by our school, although still all closed he pointed to a window display eagerly. "That one's going to be mine." What an ugly color of burnt brown._

"_It's ok." I didn't know what to say, he grabbed my wrist and dragged me to the next window _

"_What about this one?" he looked at me expectantly like a child waiting for permission to eat, I shrugged and looked away_

"_It's ok." He whined my name, trying to get me to look at the suit again, I allowed my arm to be jerked repeatedly before I looked back up "Makoto, we are going to be late for school." He waved me off, pressing his cheek to the glass his breath steaming up the pane, trying to get a better look inside the store._

"_I wonder if they have blue…"_

"_We're going to be late, Makoto."_

My fingers curled into the bedding, tears once again threatening to spill, what a stupid, ugly color. Thinking back I realized Makoto indeed had gotten that suit, and it was hanging in his bedroom right now, waiting to be worn in a few months. Maybe it wouldn't look so bad on him.

"Haru."

Brown was a good color on him after all "Haru!" maybe it's just because he had planned to get it so many years in advance "Haru?" what was it about that suit? He had liked it so much, but enough to go back and get it two years later? I would have to ask him "HARU!" I snapped from my thoughts and looked at Rei who had been calling me.

"W-what?"

"There's four schools with gold crests…" I looked around, when had Gou gotten back? She smiled at me, a concerned yet understanding look on her face. I felt my face heat up in embarrassment.

"We'll split up then" Rin instructed "Gou call Mr. and Mrs. Tachibana and get them updated. Nagisa take the first school, Haru the second, Rei the third…I'll save number four for me." We all nodded, I pulled myself off the mattress. "Ask for any teachers with goatees who have been acting strangely or recently been to Iwatobi…and guys…" we stopped to look at him, the red head smiled wanly "be careful."

The buzz in my pocket made me jump. The others froze like they were scared to move.

I paled as I realized it was Makoto's phone, as I drew out it out with trembling fingers my heart sunk.

"Is it…?" Nagisa asked, voice high from fear, I could only nod. My eyes scanned the text quickly, then again to make sure I read it correctly. What?

**UNKNOWN NUMBER**

**It's returned! "We'll be back soon!"**

We'll be back soon. We'll be back…why was that so familiar?

* * *

MAKOTO'S POV

My room was clean, the stench of vomit still lingering, but the stew, the bloody shirt and the pile of my bile had all been cleaned by Kei. Kei, the boy who had kissed me. I swallowed heavily thinking about it. The memory causing me to tremble. I had been so scared…

The honey bun he had brought had helped my hunger in the slightest, and luckily I had been let use the restroom in the locker rooms. The man with the goatee watching me the whole time.

That was hours ago, I wondered what time it was now. The room's brightness never wavered, there was no sound, no…anything. Just a dirty floor, stingy air, white walls. No windows, no furniture. Just me and my chains. Me and my thoughts. Me and my…pain.

By now my wounds old and new were aching. My head, my nose, my ribs, my chest, my arm. Every joint, every muscle…

But it was ok. It told me that I was alive.

I was sitting in the middle of the room, still chained. Staring at a small ant that crawled across the white wall… Kei said I had crushed him…

"_Hey, Makoto." I looked over at Haru, we were sitting in my house playing video games, I was losing terribly, it was a fighting game and although my friend played as an avatar…I couldn't bring myself to hit him. "You are not even trying." I looked at my controller. He was right my fingers weren't moving at all. Haru was just smashing buttons, eyes on me, not even noticing as his avatar relentlessly pounded mine into the floor. _

_I bothered me that Ren and Ran had these games in the first place. I smiled sheepishly_

"_Sorry." And smashed my finger down onto a random button, my hit missed and my avatar once again fell under the wrathful bashing Haru was dishing out. I watched as again and again, that avatar with Haru's name struck down mine. _

"_Race?" Haru suggested, suddenly stopping his attacks satisfied he'd done enough damage, he picked up a new disk and slid it into the slot, switching the game to a car racing one. _

"_I'll get us some drinks." I stood up and made my way to the stairs, nearly tripping over my third year textbooks littering my room. Since when had I gotten messy? I was always clean. I heard Haru's socked footsteps behind me and I stopped turning on the top of the stairs, my black haired friend stopping as well looking at me with a dull expression. "Why are you following me?"_

"_Can't I?" I guess. I shrugged and made my way to the kitchen, I pulled two Ramune from the fridge and tossed one to him, which he clumsily caught. I opened it and popped the ball down with a loud noise, watching the bubbles fizz to the cap. He did the same. We both took a sip. He made a disgusted face. "What is this?" I looked at him confused._

"…_Soda-" he interrupted me with a shake of his head, tossing his hair about._

"_Flavor?" I turned the bottle to read it, watermelon. _

"_Watermelon… it's the best flavor."_

"_It's gross." He plunked the bottle on the counter and the sound seemed to hit my heart like a hammer, I had forgotten to get strawberry, Haru's favorite was strawberry! How could I forget…I set mine down too, sheepishly. What kind of friend was I?_

"_Gomen." I apologized sincerely. He was looking at me, as if trying to see what my reaction would be. He shook his head at me unpleased with what he saw and picked his bottle back up. I looked away, ashamed_

"_You are going to get crushed." I looked back up quickly, eyes wide in confusion "at the game…" Haru added "I am going to crush you." He smiled. "The loser goes to the store to buy strawberry." I smiled._

"_Deal."_

Haru had crushed me, coming in first while I came in seventh…how had I crushed, Kei?

The door opened with a bang and I screamed at the sudden sound, whipping my head towards the doorway eyes wide in terror. There the goateed man was heaving, red faced with rage, eyes gleaming with hatred. The crow bar I had kicked earlier hanging from his grasp.

"You kissed my boy?" my eyes focused on the weapon in his hand, my mouth dry in fear, I scooted backwards.

"No! I-I…He-!" he was on me in an instance smashing the crow bar into my side, I screamed in agony as bolts of hot, white pain shot up my torso. I sprawled to the side, tears falling from my eyes. Breath knocked from me "He…it was-!" another blow, this time to the kneecap, I felt it shatter and vomit flooded my mouth, I screamed and it bubbled from my lips like a faucet, down my chin, over my bare chest. He stepped back to look me over. I closed my eyes, squeezing my eyelids against the agony that was making my body seize and twitch.

"He what? My boy what?" a hand twisted in my hair dragging me to my feet, I swayed and had to cling onto him to hold myself up off my ruined knee. He looked at me. "You're going to regret even living, boy." I was sobbing pitifully, vomit dripping from my mouth. "You're going to regret it." My mind was numb with pain, I couldn't think...

And his hand went to undo his belt.

No. please, no.

* * *

**Well, that's all for chapter 3! I hope you enjoyed! I am not going to describe the rape scene. I'm just going to imply that it happened. It does happen. However I don't want this to be a porn fic, just a suspenseful fic. So I'm sorry if you really wanted to see that. :/**

**PS I know I said there would be a detective OC. But I decided not to. And I know I said no Rin. But I decided to. So yeah I'm a little flip floppy sorry.**

**Mr. &amp; Mrs. Tachibana are not huge roles in this story (nor Ren and Ran) until the last chapter or so…**

**Hopefully more to come! Remember your reviews saved this story so save it again!**

**Yours truly,**

**EACT**

**Review cookies are gobbled and put to good use. I will try and use your ideas!**


	4. The Storm is Dying

**Chapter four! Sorry for the late post (as usual)**

**Rated T – for language and boyxboy kissing**

**I hope you enjoy and once again forgive my typos. I do edit but yes (shockingly) I am human and I do miss things. So forgive me, my friends?**

**I don't want you to like pull the Purge and rampage my house screaming "YOU WROTE WERE! IT'S WHERE, IDIOT!" and I'd be defending myself with a toilet plunger (because yawl are not coming towards me if I have a toilet plunger because those things are disgusting) shouting "grammar Nazis, all of you!" …**

**Remember italicized means memory/flashback or in some situations just an emphasis on a word. And please read and review and don't forget to enjoy. This is my longest chapter yet.**

* * *

MAKOTO'S POV

**DAY 6**

I am sore, hurting all over, laying on that cold ground staring at that white wall. After the goateed man had left me bleeding on the floor, face deep in my own bile, I couldn't bring myself to move. My tears were long subsided, just itchy, dry trails down my cheeks. My eyes puffy with sandpaper eyelids. I was naked, I wanted to move my legs to cover myself but every time I moved it felt like my insides were ripping.

My blood and that man's seed were trailing down my inner thighs. I didn't dare to look, the first time I did, ugly, deep bruises were littered over my lower half and it only made my situation a reality. While it was happening I kept telling myself it was a nightmare. Just a nightmare, Makoto. You'll wake up soon.

I never woke up.

I couldn't speak, my voice was just a raw scratching, like something was blocking my air. I had screamed until my throat gave out, and with my tongue I could feel blisters staring to form along the back of my throat. That man…that _monster _had marked me. With bites and claw marks, deep enough to draw blood.

It had been hours ago. And the bleeding had sluggishly stopped and began to form soft scabs. The room now had a stench of vomit, blood and sex. I shifted painfully and the chains that still wrapped me clinked almost musically.

They hadn't killed me. But they had plenty of opportunities to do so, now I figured they didn't want me dead just yet…

Part of me wanted to die inside, to bite off my own tongue and try to bleed to death. That would show them. Part of me no longer wanted to live. I felt…dirty. I looked down and saw a small, nickel-sized pool of white fluid besides me. Oh god, was that…? I squeezed my eyes shut.

Yet although a part of me wanted so desperately to die, a part of me was now even more determined to escape. To make sure that bastard paid and got the justice he deserved.

The door handle rattled and I flinched, turning my head barely to look at it, it was Kei. He entered quickly and quietly like a snake and shut the door again behind him. He held a bundle in his arms. I realized that as I looked at him my vision was somewhat hazy and blurred, I blinked but it didn't clear. Was I going to pass out from the pain, or was lack of sleep finally catching up to me as my adrenaline was wearing off?

I was almost relieved to see him. No, I _was._ My heart fluttered as I looked at him.

"Pants." He said, unrolling the bundle in his hands. It was a pair of plain black boxers, he rushed up to me and sat me up, I groaned as pain shot like lightning up me and my ruined knee. He helped me slowly get into them and I almost immediately felt a little better. I tried to thank him but my voice came out a painful croak and he placed a thin, cool finger to my lips shaking his head. "No need."

Then there in his eyes I saw something and it nearly broke my heart. Guilt.

What would happen to Kei if I escaped or got rescued?

I felt a cold sting and looked down, the blonde was busy wiping at my wounds gently with a cotton swab and alcohol. He stayed away from anywhere near the black boxers and I was thankful. "I am sorry." He said in English, I was glad Rin had taught me some, I nodded. He looked at me and in broken Japanese asked "Do you know who I am?"

No. I shook my head, looking at him. He sighed and started cleaning a finger nail scratch on my shoulder, I watched his fingers. "I've raced against you many times…I swim backstroke as well." He looked up at me quickly then went back to his work "my father is a teacher at Uzuki Middle." A school I had never heard of before. "My mother lives in America, I've lived with her my whole life. On summers I would come to Japan to visit father, and I would swim."

He continued "my father was very happy when I swam, he thinks I'm very good. He thinks I could have been one of the best. He saw a lot of money to be made by me becoming a pro in Japan. You see I had never lost, yet I have raced against you many times and you would always crush me by at least 3 seconds. My father, he'd get so mad watching these matches. You never said anything to me afterwards but you always smiled at me as we got out of the pool."

I shook my head, slowly remembering the small blonde whom I had raced against for a few summers many years ago. "Father began blaming you, especially when a scout from a private High came up to you and offered for you to come to his athletic school." I remembered that scout, my parents had been so proud, yet I had turned the offer down. I wanted to swim with Haru, after all it was meaningless without him. Kei continued his story.

"Father sent me back to America. He was very angry and thought it was only you who stood in my way of professional swim, even though we were just getting out of middle school he still had his plans for my future and his plans for wealth. Although he despised you…I was…I was in love with you Makoto Tachibana."

I couldn't help but blush, my eyes shifted up from my now clean wound and up to his eyes, he was looking at me. "You have to understand I did not want this." By this I assumed he meant my current situation "I wanted only to be with you. When I came to visit father he enrolled me briefly at Iwatobi so I could be near you. But then one day I went into his office at the middle school he works at and saw your picture in his drawer. And another on his desk." He closed the alcohol bottle "and then a few days later he kidnapped you…at first I thought it was for me. But it was only for himself."

We both looked away almost suddenly embarrassed by each other's company. He reached for me and slipped a small key from his pocket, with a click the chains around me feel loose, untethering me, withering away like a thin, silver snake. He pulled them off me, helping me stretch out my arms. The joints cracked and I wheezed in pain, the metal had chaffed my wrists into a raw oozing red.

He carried the chains towards the door. I couldn't image what would happen when his father saw me free of them but all I could feel now was gratitude. I managed to sit up myself, trying to put the least amount of pressure on my abused rear.

He came back and knelt in front of me again, pulling me into a soft hug. His blonde hair pinned back from his face by a single black bobby pin…a bobby pin? My eyes immediately snapped back to it, then to the lock on the door, Kei's nose was rested in the crook of my bare neck, his eyes closed, arms gently wrapped around my ribs, breathing slowly against my skin.

I bit my lip. A sudden plan struck me like a jolt. I eyed him.

Just do it, Makoto.

I out stretched my hand upwards towards his head and softly lay my fingers on his hair. He jumped, my fingers trembled. I stroked the silken strands softly,

"It's not your fault." I said, was that my voice? I sounded terrible, my words coming past my lips like a painful croak. He winced at it and hugged me tighter, I could almost feel his body tense with withheld tears and emotions. I felt bad for him, it wasn't his fault. My fingers touched the bobby pin and I gently worked it free, disguising my true intentions by my strokes.

His body was hot against my bare chest, and I blushed madly as I realized how close we were to one another. I was nearly in his lap.

He suddenly pulled back and took my hand. I gasped hoarsely looking down at his fingers then up at his eyes in rapid succession, he gazed at me. His eyes…they were like Haru's deep and blue. Like an endless pool of water. "I cannot stop him from breaking you." His other hand cupped my cheek and leaned in his lips brushing against mine, I could taste his breath. I went rigid, eyes wide and squeezed the bobby pin in my fist tightly "but at least I can be the glue that keeps you together."

* * *

HARU'S POV

It was 6 AM, once again I had not slept. It had been nearly 48 hours now. Surprisingly Nagisa and Gou had fallen into slumber curled up in a large arm chair by the window. Rei's keyboard had clicked, and Rin paced the floor through the night, leaving the carpeting of the room flat in places. I had sat on the bed, legs dangling over the side, holding onto Makoto's phone in a grip that turned my knuckles white. We said nothing. My fingers were cold from lack of circulation.

The sky was still dark, but the horizon had begun to glow from the hidden sun. The room was lit with a small desk lamp, shadowing the room into a dull, stingy, dim yellow.

Yesterday had been worthless, we had all gone to the schools, but it had been too late in the evening by then to talk to anyone on a weekend and they instructed us to come back tomorrow. Here it was tomorrow. I kicked my legs impatiently. An unopened soda by the bed and a bag of mackerel chips half ate. Rin had forced me to eat, after all I hadn't since Makoto had disappeared.

Rin had forced me to try to sleep as well, so I had laid and closed my eyes pretending to sleep, until he roughly jabbed me in the side with his finger and called me out on my bluff. I was glad I had called him. I reached down and grabbed the soda, unwrapping the plastic from the cap, I paused. If I opened it I was sure the sound of the glass ball carbonating it would wake Gou and Nagisa, and the sleep was probably doing them well.

Instead I rolled the Ramune bottle in my fingers. Examining the colorful letters and chibi's printed on the label. Watermelon. Makoto's favorite. A sudden whisper nearly made me gasp in shock.

"Hey" I looked up at Rin who was looking down at me. He nodded towards the bottle in my hands "I didn't know you like watermelon, that's Makoto's favorite." I looked back at the bottle. My voice was, too, a whisper.

"It's my favorite too." Rin smiled, not realizing I had just lied through my teeth and reached down to pick up the bag of chips on the floor.

"Mackerel chips?" his nose wrinkled in disgust "They make this shit?" he took one and put it in his mouth, chewing on it noiselessly, his nose wrinkled more and he threw them back at me "You can keep them, fish boy." I stared at the bag which had spilled in my lap, saying nothing. I saw Rin turn to Rei out of the corner of my eye "Yo, four eyes!" he was still whispering, it didn't sound as tough as he'd like to think. Rei looked up, dark circles under his eyes. "Get your shoes!" the red head looked at me "you too."

Rei scrambled to comply, but I just looked at my friend with a confused expression.

"Why-?"

"Breakfast, my treat."

"Nothing's open at this hour." Rin sighed and grabbed my arm hauling me off the mattress, he pointed at my shoes by the door in a silent command to put them on,

"The family store, on the corner, is." I retrieved my shoes and balanced, one hand on the doorframe to put them on. Rei smirked, pulling his on as well. He muttered

"Cheap" under his breath. Rin shot him a look that I couldn't see but Rei's mouth snapped shut. I could only imagine the severity of the glare.

"Shut the hell up, four eyes. You want to complain? You can go without." Rin shook his head in disbelief "Sheesh, if I hadn't shown up you'd probably have been in worse shape than Makoto by now." Rin snapped his mouth shut, realizing his joke was in bad taste. None of us moved, but our eyes all averted from each other in thought and shame. "Gomen." Rin muttered. My insides swelled painfully in fear. The same fear I had been feeling for Makoto for the last 48 hours.

It made my palms sweat.

I looked at Rin, his face was twisted into a frown of self-hatred.

"Let's go?" I offered, my hand lingering on the door knob. Rin was right. It would be nice to get out of this room even if for a short while. And we would all be sick soon if we didn't sleep or eat, and what good would we be to Makoto then? Rin followed me out into the hall and soon we were all outside.

The side walk was wide enough for all three of us to walk side by side. The sun was casting a small orange glow into the dark, a sliver above the horizon; the streetlights that were illuminating our path had moths fluttering around them frantically. On our left was a two lane street lined with shops, on our right was a chain link fence that separated the pavement from the sand which led down to the ocean.

Here and there lay palm leaves and debris from the storm that had blown through a few days ago.

The street was silence except for our footsteps, the crashing tide and the screaming gulls above us. We all walked in silence deep in our own thoughts, Rin with his hands deep in his pockets, Rei with his hanging lifelessly by his sides.

I looked out over the glistening water. Usually the sight would have made something inside me stir, make me want to swim. Today it's didn't. Today it was just water...swimming wasn't the same without him.

By him I meant Makoto.

"You're thinking of him, aren't you?" Rei asked, I looked at him. His question was directed towards me. I shrugged a silent yes. Rei followed my gaze to the ocean. He was in the middle between Rin and me so Rin threw an arm over his shoulder squeezing until Rei looked at him.

"Don't pretend like you aren't." Rin said, the boy with glasses shrugged another silent yes. And Rin sighed. "Makoto is going to be ok. You guys are forgetting how tough he is." I looked at the red head. Where was he going with this? "He's like…and orca. All cute but when shit goes down he's a carnivore." I couldn't help it as a smile exploded on my lips. He called Makoto cute. Rin looked at me, a confused expression on his face "what?"

"You called him cute." Rin blushed and pulled back his arm from Rei like he had suddenly caught fire, turning his head away sharply swinging his hair in a violent arch.

"Yeah, so?!" he snapped, lips curling to reveal his sharpened teeth, Rei laughed

"Aw, Rin-!" an elbow to the side cut his sentence off, Rin stopped and grabbed his collar fist cocked

"Say something, glasses! I dare you!" Rei paled and threw his hands up in defense, shaking his head frantically. I wish Makoto was here laughing with us, blushing at the attention. I missed his laugh.

Rin was right, Makoto was tough. He'd be ok.

"Haru? You coming in the store?" my eyes snapped to Rei who was beckoning to a doorway I hadn't realized we had arrived at. I nodded and pushed my way inside. The store was empty, there was Rin with half of his body in a cooler, digging out 6 juice boxes, he was barely able to hold them all in his arms. Next to me Rei muttered something I couldn't make out and rushed up to the red head who was kicking closed the cooler door and taking a hand basket from the elderly store keeper, he dumped the juice into it.

"Rin, we only need 5." It took me a moment to realize the mistake. He had grabbed one too many. One for Makoto. I said nothing but watched from a distance as Rin quickly put one back keeping me in the corner of his eyes the whole time, I stood in the middle of the aisle pretending not to notice. Pretending to be looking at the row of magazines. I picked up a manga and began to rifle through the black and white pages. I heard Rin make his way towards me, although I didn't acknowledge him, he looked over my shoulder.

"I didn't know you read manga."

"Makoto does." Rin took the book from me and flipped through the pages as well, stopping quickly on one page to whistle at the girl, who in that frame was only in a towel stepping from the shower. He dog eared the page. Really, Rin? "You probably won't like it…there's no porn." Rin rolled his eyes.

"I don't read things just for porn." I had seen under his bed though, it was like a magazine shop had gone out of business. It was my turn to roll my eyes. "I didn't know Makoto read these."

"He likes the romantic ones…he told me not to tell." The only time Makoto had seen a porn magazine was in Rin's room last summer, he had grabbed it by accident and nearly fell over. I smiled. He was so innocent sometimes.

"And yet…" Rin said humor laced in his voice, "typical, Makoto." He tossed the book in his basket. Why was he buying it? "For Makoto." He specified "When he comes home." I liked that idea and I nodded fiercely showing my approval, my hair slapping my forehead like small needles. I turned to the shelf next to me and grabbed a small box of sweets. I dropped them in his basket, he stared at it.

"He like's Yokan too." Rin calmly removed the box from the cart and placed it back on the shelf, looking at me somewhat exasperated.

"Well, good for him, Haru. But I'm not made of money. The dork will be happy enough with the book… I mean just think about how happy he gets whenever someone gives him something." Rin pulled me to the next aisle and began sweeping buns into his cart from the counter. "Remember that time the teacher gave him a sticker in grade school? Or the goldfish from the fisherman? Or Valentine's Day when that girl gave him that chocolate? Or when…"

I drown him out and inched away, I did remember. The thought made me smile, but I went back to the box of Yokan anyways and picked it up to read the price. 500 yen. I held the pocket sized container in my hand while my other hand dug in my clothes looking for money. All together I barley had half. This would have made him so happy. It was red bean, his favorite.

I placed the box back, a sad frown on my face. It would have made him smile.

"Come on, Haru! We're leaving!" I turned and dejectedly ambled towards Rei who had called to me by the door, Rin followed moments afterwards with a plastic bag full of breakfast. Muttering something while crushing the long receipt in his fist.

"That's robbery." He said slightly louder "how can 5 buns, 1 book and 5 juice boxes cost that much?"

"And don't forget that box of Yokan you bought." Rei corrected, I looked at Rin sharply, whose face was frozen in a guilty expression, I smiled

Thank you, Rin.

* * *

MAKOTO'S POV

I worked the bobby pin into the lock, gently pressing the thin metal into the tumblers in the door. Luckily the lock was basic and not some high tech security system. Something in the handle clicked and my breath caught, I jiggled the door knob. It didn't budge. My hopes crashed and I pushed the pin back in to try again.

Thank you, Ren. How many times had I had to unlock your toy chest like this? Had to pick the lock when you accidently closed the key inside. Thank you.

There was a thin trail of blood from where I had laid to where I had dragged myself by the door. Not only from my knee, but from what had come from my thighs as well. My knee was horrific, bloody and bruised, the gash so deep from the tool the goateed man had used on me, that a bit of white showed through the layers of my split flesh. It was bone. My knee cap had shattered and bone shrapnel poked through there. I couldn't look at it. How far would I get on just one leg?

It was so cold in the room that my injuries were numb. Everything was numb, I had gotten used to the cold though, I no longer had goose bumps and now I was shivering for reasons other than the temperature. It was like the ugly man was toying with me, making me freeze then changing the room to a blistering hot to make my injuries warm up, painfully. Then back to cold. The pin was like a small icicle in my grasp.

Thankfully, Kei had not noticed his missing bobby pin. While we were…I blushed thinking about it. While we were _kissing,_ I had slipped the bobby pin into my own hair. After all I only kissed him back to get the pin. My heart fluttered. I paused. Why did my heart flutter?

The door clicked again and my thin fingers wrapped around the blistering cold knob, I heard myself mutter a prayer and I turned it. The door squeaked softly as it opened. My heart swelled painfully and tears sprung to my eyes as laugh bubbled past my lips, I quickly pressed my palm to my mouth to quiet myself. In a moment my laughs had turned to tears and I hung from the door knob, biting my knuckles as tears ran down my cheeks and my nose ran down my chin. My cries sounded like soft hiccups as my teeth drew blood on my hand. The relief and idea of freedom making me hysterical.

Get it together, Makoto. Get out of here.

I didn't bother to dry my eyes, I pulled my hand from my mouth and a drip of blood lingered on my chapped lips, I licked them until they stung. I pushed the bobby pun back into my hair and slowly swung the door a few inches and peered into the hall.

The dimly lit hallway seemed a mile long and it disappeared into shadows before I could see the end. I listened, closing my eyes… nothing. I peered through my eyelashes, slowly crawling into the hall on one leg, scrambling slowly like a crippled dog. There were many doors that littered the walls stretching down the way, some closets, others rooms and offices for the coaches and classes. I knew them all. I knew where I was and where I needed to go.

"Makoto?" I gasped and jumped almost banging my bad knee on the ground, I gasped expecting pain but heaved in relief as I barely missed it, I slowly looked up. There, three doors down. Kei stood looking at me his face a mixture of emotions. Shock, betrayal, amazement, amusement, anger. I couldn't tell. I swallowed heavily, the blisters screaming on my throat. He approached me, holding his palms towards me as if he were surrendering. As if he were approaching a scared animal. "How far did you expect to get on one leg like that?"

He knelt next to me his fingers brushing my hair, he pulled the bobby pin free and looked at it. "This is mine." He said simply, I bit my lip. He would get angry. "You're clever, Makoto. I'll give you that much." He smiled and laughed, slipping the pin back in my hair and bending to plant a soft kiss on my forehead, his lips were burning. "You're burning up." He felt my forehead, then my arms. "And at the same time you are freezing." I sat there, a dumb expression on my face, voice too far gone to reply. He smiled softly and grabbed me by the cook of my arm, helping and half dragging me to my feet.

I swayed and he held me close to his side, acting as my human crutch. Sharp fingers dug into my side. "You're lucky it was _me_ who found you." I know I was, I wanted to cry in relief again but I held it back, my arm slung over his shoulder. "You need a hospital…Father is at work."

Was he…? Was he going to help me? "I'm going to help you."

I'm going home. I'm going to be ok.

* * *

HARU'S POV

I was on the phone with Makoto's parents again. They had been calling every hour even though I told them I'd call them if we found anything. I didn't blame them though nor did I get annoyed, after all they are his parents, Mrs. Tachibana was a nervous wreck. I could literally hear her wringing her hands as she leaned in close to hear Mr. Tachibana and I talk. They hadn't told Makoto's siblings yet. I could hear them laughing in the background.

"We're at the airport. We're getting on a flight in a few hours and should be there in about a day."

"Ok." There was a painful pause,

"We haven't told Ran or Ren yet, they think my job called me back early from vacation."

"Oh…" I didn't know what to say "that's good."

"Is there any news?"

"No, Not yet." That's pretty much how all the conversations went, soon after we'd say our farewells and hang up. Today it was different.

"It's our fault." Mr. Tachibana said, his voice cracked and goose bumps jumped onto my skin. He sounded broken "we should have never left him alone." There was a gentle wheezing sound, he was crying. My heart shattered.

"Mom, why is Daddy crying?" I heard Ran say in the background,

"Daddy's sad." The soft voice of Makoto's mother.

"Don't worry, Daddy. We can come back to America to finish our trip later." Children. So naïve, those poor children. When they found out Makoto was gone…they loved their brother more than anything…

"Haru." Mr. Tachibana paused, the children's voices grew farther away. "How are _you_ doing?"

"Ok, I guess." Such a lie. He didn't buy it.

"He'll be ok, you know. Leave the worrying to us." I smiled a little, it was fleeting. There for a moment and then gone, like a sigh. If only it was that easy, to just not worry. I was sitting on the bed in the hotel room, Nagisa, Rei and Rin were watching me, each silently eating their buns and drinking their boxed juice. I met their gaze and they looked away, ashamed to be eavesdropping. Gou sat on the arm of Nagisa's chair flipping through the manga we bought for Makoto. "Are you eating, sleeping?"

I looked at my bun, still wrapped on the table side besides me.

"Yes." I didn't want to worry him, I hadn't told him that the police weren't helping. I opened my mouth to say more but words died in my throat.

"I'm going to go now."

"Yeah…ok."

"Bye Haru, take care. Let us know if anything happens."

"Yeah…ok." My ear buzzed with a dial tone, I drew away the phone and snapped it shut, staring at it for a moment. He had sounded so broken. "Bye." I whispered.

"Ever'thin m'kay?" I looked up at Rin, crumbs were spilling out of his mouth and his sister slapped him roughly on the shoulder with the manga.

"You're disgusting." Rin smiled impishly, his pointed teeth covered in dough.

"I try." The other's laughed and I bit my tongue and balled my fists, my fingernails digging and stinging in my palms. How could they be so carefree? Laughing like this while Makoto, his family and I are suffering. How?

"Shut up." I growled, I looked up at them viciously with furrowed brows. "How can you just sit there and joke around?" I stood up quickly and took a menacing step towards them. They looked away. "HOW CAN YOU JUST SIT THERE AND JOKE!?"

"Haru-"

"Shut up, Rei!" I felt something hot trickle down my palm. "You are his_ friends_, damn it!" my eyes seared and blurred from swelling tears "act like it!"

"Yeah?" Nagisa stood up nearly as viciously as I did, his voice was hard unlike the usual blonde, he stepped towards me until he was nearly in my face. "And how would you like us to do that?" He threw out his arms and took a small step back as if urging me to come at him. "Makoto wouldn't want us to just mope around and be the depressed, selfish jerk that you have been!" My lips gaped slightly, and I felt my eyebrows quiver. Rage and angst, and betrayal racing through my mind.

"That's enough-" Nagisa cut Rin off mid-sentence.

"Makoto is gone!" the room spun with a deafening silence "there I said it! Because no one else would!" the raging blonde spun to face the others behind him. "Makoto. Is. Gone." His voice softened and his gaze lingered on the window "and we have to come to terms with the fact that…we may never get him back."

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Rin bellowed standing up as well, "both of you, listen to me and listen well." He jabbed his finger at the blonde "don't you dare give up on, Mako. After all the times he never gave up on you. You owe him that much. We _are_ going to get Makoto back. You hear?" Nagisa nodded softly, head bowed "and _you_" Rin pointed at me "Nagisa is right about one thing. You're attitude's not helping anyone."

I turned sharply and grabbed my coat from the bed, storming to the door.

"Where are you going?" Gou asked, I didn't bother to turn around.

"Schools opened five minutes ago. I'm going to Uzuki Middle to talk to the teachers…to find my _friend."_

Makoto look what you're doing to us. You were the glue that held us together. But who is your glue?

I made it to Uzuki Middle half past eight, I had to take two buses and a taxi. It was Sunday, so there was no school and yet several teachers mingled in the courtyard sipping steaming mugs and chatting merrily. Blue blazers, gold crests. I stepped from the taxi and made my way inside, an elderly man stopped me in the hall.

"It's a weekend kid, go home." I was slightly offended that he mistook me for a Middle school student but I brushed it off.

"Do you know the teachers here well, sir?"

"Of course, I've worked here 18 years."

"Do any teachers have goatees? Or beards?" the elderly man looked at me confusion sparkling in his wrinkled eyes, he thought for a moment scratching his chin.

"A few, yes. I suppose. Why do you ask?"

"A few? Like how many?" he shrugged and sighed in exasperation

"I don't know, 5 or 6 probably!" I nodded and he fixed the collar on his blazer.

"Does any of them make visits to Iwatobi?" the greying man crossed his arms, scanning me with his eyes, his eyebrow arched slightly

"Are you even a student here?" I didn't answer and he sighed, he thought for a moment "2 of our teachers go to Iwatobi often. One of them, Ms. Singh tutors there. Math. Such a nice, sweet, intelligent lady." He paused with a soft smile, "and then Mr. Yakashiro, I believe he just enrolled his son at Iwatobi. He goes down there to pick him up after classes. A proud dad, his son's one hell of a swimmer" a swimmer? "Back swim. Or back paddle…or whatever it's called."

"Backstroke?"

"Ah, yes. That's the one…I hear that's why he enrolled him at Iwatobi, his son has a friend there that swims backstroke too" Could I be that lucky? To have found the man I was looking for so quickly? My heart fluttered in anticipation.

"Is he here today?" the man nodded and pointed down the hall,

"He's in Class E9. You just missed him though, he said he had to go home for a few minutes to check on his son. He has the flu, poor kid. He should be back soon though if you'd like to wait."

"Thank you." I dashed off down the hall, I could feel the old man's eyes on me as I disappeared, I rounded the corner, a sign hung from the doorframe that labeled E9 and I skidded to a stop. I paused for a moment before pushing myself inside the class room.

It was decorated with maps and globes and book cases stacked with old text books. Three large metal filing cabinets stood in the corner. I made my way silently to the desk. It was littered with papers and pens, on the corner, balancing against the mess stood a picture of a blonde boy, skinny but attractive.

His face. I knew it from somewhere. I picked up the thick frame and flipped it over in my palm, I slipped out the picture and folded it tucking it into my shirt pocket, I froze. There, in the frame behind the picture of the blonde, was a smiling picture of Makoto.

Makoto…

My fingers trembled, my friend was young, a picture from middle school, stretching by the pool side. Green goggles pushing hair in every direction, water dripping around his feet. I had never seen this picture before, he looked…cute. For a kid anyways. I slid that picture out as well, a red penned note was scribbled on the back.

'Bottom drawer' was written there. I knelt down and opened the bottom drawer on the desk, it was filled with large, yellow folders. I rifled through them, my fingers freezing on the one that bore my friends name.

MAKOTO TACHIBANA

I pulled it from the stack and flipped it open. My stomach lurched painfully and my vision tunneled onto its contents. Dozens of pictures of my friend were taped there. Some old, some from just a few days ago on the beach. Swimming at Iwatobi, having fun at the festival, changing in his room, walking to school, shopping, cooking, studying…they seemed to never end. There were several notes clustered in the file as well, personal information. His phone number, his address, his class schedule, his work schedule at Iwatobi swim club. And other things like favorite restaurants and stores…

I closed the folder with a slap. This was too much. I backed away, scrubbing a hand over my face. Just how long had this been going on?

I snatched up the file, turning to briskly walk to the door when a picture on the wall caught my attention, a black and white newspaper clipping. Iwatobi Swim Club Returns, with a picture of Rei, Nagisa, Makoto and I, standing beside Coach Sasabe waving dumbly at the camera. A hand painted sign hung behind us "We'll be back soon!" I remember painting that…

Then it hit me. Like a fist that twisted my insides, I grabbed Makoto's phone from my pocket and re-read the last message.

**UNKNOWN NUMBER**

**It's returned! "We'll be back soon!"**

I ran.

* * *

MAKOTO'S POV

Kei held me tight against him, his hair tickling my cheek as he bent under my weight, supporting me up. I hobbled, it was painstakingly slow. We were nearly at the door, it had taken us over an hour to get down three halls and a flight of stairs. We were in the final hallway, the one with the big window that spanned the length of the hall, overlooking the still, mirror-like pool. It cast a soft blue glow in the otherwise dark passage. He chuckled suddenly and I looked at him.

He rested me against a wall, so he could take a break from holding me. He stepped back and leaned against the window, hands on the sill, propping himself up. I admired his thin frame for a moment, the way his sharp collarbones pressed against his shirt…I blushed; what are you doing, Makoto? Another chuckle.

"What?" I whispered, I found that whispering made my voice sound better, it almost sounded normal. He looked at me and shook his head, waving it off. I smiled softly, suddenly curious. "What?" I repeated, he bit his lip and looked at me, up through a thin curtain of his bangs. The blue glow from the pool seemed to make his eyes glow, this time a giggle escaped his lips. He tilted his head slightly, blonde hair falling to the side.

"I'm so grounded."

I stood dumbfounded for a moment, mouth slightly agape. My shoulders heaved and before I knew it I was laughing, my sore throat burned like acid, and I had to press my palm to it as I laughed. I could hear Kei laughing as well, a gentle, musical laugh but genuine. I couldn't help it, I held onto the wall as I heaved with amusement. It felt so good to laugh. We were both so sacred that his father would find us that our laughter was a mixture of terror, desperation, relief and hope. He really was looking out for me, wasn't he? I looked at Kei who was arched forward, breathing heavily from our fit of glee.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Kei asked straightening, he went back to his previous position, hands behind him on the sill, shoulders forward straining his shirt. A smile on his lips.

"Just thinking." I whispered, averting my eyes to the pool behind him. It was so still, not a single ripple.

"About what?" he was looking at me, with his head tilted trying to meet my eyes, my face burned in the dark.

"What happens if your dad comes?" I was glad that my voice sounded better when I whispered, it hurt less too. At least now I could communicate.

"He won't. He'll be at the school until at least noon." There was silence for a moment, Kei looked away at the glowing 'Exit' sign just down the way. I took the chance to observe him again without him noticing.

"What will happen to you?" I swallowed, my saliva burning my blistered throat, he looked back at me, eye's soft.

"You're worried?" I nodded and he chuckled "you really are a pushover, Makoto. Here I am a kidnapper and you're worried for me." He had a point, but then again he hadn't known his father would abduct me.

"I can't go back, Makoto." Go back? To his dad, or with me? His hair shimmered as he turned his head away again, I couldn't take my eyes off him. He was like a lamp, and I was moth, stupid enough to be drawn to the light even knowing I'd be burnt. "I can't go back to him." His dad, he meant his dad. I let a silent sigh of relief. He could come with me, we'd both be safe. "I'm going to take you to the hospital and then I'm going to disappear."

"Disappear?"

"Yeah, I don't want to go to jail. And I don't want to stay with my father." Jail? He'd be tried and found guilty as an accomplice, I felt a small bead of sweat drip down my temple. I heard him sniffle, a sparkling tear dripped from his eyelash, I opened my mouth to speak but found no words. "I'm sorry, Makoto. I'm sorry this happened to you."

"You're helping me now, that's all that matters."

"It's not, I could have prevented this. I could have-" I pushed myself off the wall and limped over to him pushing him into the window. My fingers dug into his shoulder, holding him there. My other hand slammed onto the glass besides his head, I had trapped him.

I was looking down at him, his back and head firmly pressing into the glass. He was a few inches shorter than me and so thin. We were uncomfortably close, almost intimately. He looked up at me eyes wide and shimmering with tears.

"It is not your fault!" I said forcefully, not bothering to whisper, my voice scratched like feedback from a speaker, but neither minded. He reached up and wrapped his fingers around my forearm, gently pushing me away and averting his eyes.

"You keep saying that but I still hate myself for hurting you." I complied with his pushing and took a small step back. I blushed madly realizing what I had just done, when had I gotten so bold?

"Gomen…" I whispered, averting my eyes as well. The awkward silence grew until it was nearly suffocating.

"I really do love you, Makoto." Kei was whispering as well, in the glow of the pool I could see his face turning red, I smiled softly my heart fluttering against my chest like a butterfly trapped in a jar. "I was never going to tell you though, I would never burden you like that."

"Burden me?"

"A man having feelings for another man." I blushed. My heart still flickering with an unknown emotion, why does he make me feel this way? Stockholm syndrome? I had written a paper on that once, so this…what I'm feeling right now…is normal?

"It's ok." Why wouldn't he look at me, is he that ashamed? I inched closer and rested my fingers on his neck, his pulse beating forcefully against his skin. It was so soft and…warm. He startled and his eyes snapped into mine, the blue glow swaddling us both. My other hand rested against the cool glass beside his head and I leaned in, amazed at my own bravado. He was pressed against the window, completely surrounded by me. I tipped my head down to meet his lips, there it was. That taste. Mint…honey buns…tea. My chapped lips completely overtook his soft, moist ones.

I felt his arms slip around my waist and he drew me closer, we broke the kiss and stood a moment embracing each other. I had kissed him. _I _kissed _him._ There was no motive, no bobby pins, no distraction. It was just us. Kei and Makoto. Him and me. And I had kissed him. Why? My face scorched with embarrassment, what have I done? But…it was…nice.

The window shattered beside us and I screamed, a 'pop' echoed and Kei grabbed my shoulders and dragged me down behind the safety of the wall below the window. Glass cut into my feet, I panted. The building thrown into silence once again.

"What was that!?" I whispered, Kei pressing heavily into me. I pushed him off me lightly, he wouldn't budge, he was panting, probably as scared as I was. "I thought you said your dad wouldn't be back!" Kei sunk harder into me "Kei! Get up we have to run!" I hoisted him to his feet, he was so light. He sagged limply, damn it we have to run! "Kei stop fooling around, we have to run-!" I looked down at him, he was nearly laying in my arms with his breaths hard and desperate. "Kei?"

He looked up at me, dark spots splattered on his face. Blood? Where had that come from? Did he get cut? "Kei?" I repeated, he slumped lower pulling me back to the floor. I rested my hand on his back, his shoulder blades sharp against my hand. We crouched facing each other, me on my good knee, him on his rear. Legs folded next to him. "Kei, what's wrong?" We were close again, a mere foot apart. His hands on my shoulders, mine on his shoulder blade and the back of his neck. His head was lolled forward, hair a curtain between us. He slowly looked up at me. A small trail of blood dripping down his chin.

"Sorry. I'm sorry." His voice was pained, like he was struggling. Sorry, why, what for? My fingers on his back twitched, hot and clammy. Why was his shirt so wet? I pulled him to me, so that he was leaning into my bare chest, his forehead was cool against me, I pulled my fingers from his back. They were black in the lighting. Black? No, crimson. Blood. The 'pop' it was a gunshot.

Kei… he had been? Shot?

"Kei" I pushed him back so that I could look into his face, his eyes were half closed, glossy. They seemed to look right through me. "Kei, wake up."

"M'wake"

"Ok, good. That's good. You just got to stay awake ok? Just keep your eyes on me. I'm not going to forgive you if you've spent all your life looking at me and when I finally look back you stop. Don't you dare! You hear me? I'm going to get us out of here, I promise ok? I promise." I realized I was rambling and stopped to breathe, I pulled him to his feet "I'm going to help you." His knees crumpled and I had to hoist him back up, holding him up by the crook of his arm while I struggled to balance on my good leg. "Kei, you awake?"

He made a soft moan to reply and I forced myself to breathe. His father had shot him, his own father. I gritted my teeth in pain and rage as I heaved the thin boy onto my back. Like the piggy rides I sometimes gave Ran. His arms draped limply over my shoulders, I held him up onto me by the backs of his knees. I stumbled towards the exit, crying out painfully each time pressure was applied to my knee. Don't you die, don't you dare. I heard Kei whisper, his lips brushing my ear, head limp on my shoulder.

"Leave me."

"Never."

"We…sound like a couple…in an manga." His voice was so breathy, so quiet. I doubt I would have heard it if he wasn't in my ear. I smiled despite the severity of the situation "I only read…the romantic ones." I realized he was trying to keep my mind off the pain in my leg. Keep him talking, Makoto. If he's talking then he's alive.

"Me too, but don't tell my friends... you and I are too alike." I chuckled, it sounded as fake it was, I could feel Kei slipping on my back. Slipping away. I bit my lip, my eyes burning. The exit it's right there. Just a few feet, hold on.

"We're too…different, Makoto." Just keep going, Makoto. Just keep- "Leave me…"

"Shut up" a tear slipped free.

"You have friends and family to… live for… I have no one…"

"Yeah? Then what the HELL ABOUT _ME_? WHAT DOES THAT MAKE _ME_!?" My fingers dug painfully into his legs and I pulled him tighter against me, tears made my vision blurry. I stumbled faster towards the glowing which I knew was the exit sign.

"What…does that make you? That makes you…what I would die for."

A gunshot shattered the dark and I hear myself scream, Kei lurched forward on my back making me stumble.

"Makoto!" A voice called, almost like he was singing. I threw a look behind me, he was at the end of the hall, slowly walking towards us as if taking his time. Enjoying watching his prey try to escape. I pushed myself to my feet and stumbled the last few feet to the door, Kei swinging limply on my back. I threw it open and tumbled into the parking lot.

"HELP!" I screamed my voice strident, desperate and wispy. "HELP US!" a man across the street came out of a shop and stared at me, we locked eyes for a moment before he got into his car and started it. "HELP ME!" the car rumbled down the street. I watched it in despair.

The door behind me slammed open, and I cried out in shock falling to the pavement. Kei fell from my back with a sickening 'thud.' The goateed man sneered down at me, waving a pistol. My eyes flew to the blonde's still from, he was facing away from me. Two bloody spots growing on the back of his white t-shirt. Two? The second gunshot, Kei had lurched… "…Kei…" was dead.

Tears burned like acid down my cheeks "_That makes you what I would die for."_ And he had. Kei. I let out a scream, barbaric. Grieving, despair leaking from my eyes, I dragged myself over to him and pulled him into me. Holding him like I was willing my life into him, so tightly, so close…I buried my soggy face into his hair. Rocking him. He was my glue. Without him I just couldn't hold it together anymore.

I felt the cold barrel of a gun press on my temple. My breath catching, I slowly closed my eyes…this is it. This is the end. I don't want to live anymore. I turned my head to look at the man, who was eyeing his son like a piece of trash.

"Damn you." I said, my voice a whisper. Dying in my throat. I rocked Kei gently, my tears silent. "Is this what you wanted?" the man smiled, pressing the gun into my skull so hard my head tilted.

"The weak die, the strong suffer."

"Kei, was not weak."

"A man's goal in life is to get ahead. To be successful. You took that away from me. You took away my wealth, my dreams, my chance of having the son I always wanted…it was always you." I opened my eyes, staring into the thick of Kei's slightly bloodied hair. It was bright. Glittering in the sun like gold.

"Killing me won't change anything now."

"No, that's true. But it will sure make it a whole of a hell lot easier to deal with what I've lost."

"You selfish bastard, you just killed your son. Your only son! For what? MONEY? BECAUSE HE COULDN'T BE WHO YOU WANTED!?" I lay Kei on the ground and pushed myself up to face the goateed man, my knee was numb. I felt numb. The gun was in my face, unwavering, steady like a surgeon's scalpel.

"We all have our reasons." The man said, the gun lowered to my chest. He cocked it, the 'click' echoing in my head, I swallowed heavily. "My son loved you." My eyes flickered back to the limp body besides me, the back of his shirt was nearly completely red and it was slowly seeping into the pavement around him. A soft wind tousled our hair.

"I know." Kei…I'm so sorry.

"Look at me." I didn't, here it comes. I'm going to die here. A sudden fear wrapped my heart in ice, I looked around frantically. Trying to take everything in, how many flowers there were, the mural on the front of the swim club, what sounds I heard, the Sakura petals falling from the tree…in my last moments to live I wanted to live my last moments. "LOOK AT ME!" he bellowed, I did. I slowly turned my face to gaze at him. He sneered "I want to see you die." Those cold eyes…

'**BANG' **the sound of the gun, it startled me even though I knew it was coming. I didn't feel it at first, but I stumbled back a few feet. It was so loud. My ears rung, a strident hum and I could hear nothing else. I felt my chest with sticky fingers, I pressed my palm into the small, penny-sized hole. Hot blood running down my bare torso. It was such a small wound… how can someone die from such a small wound?

The world was slowing down around me, the man was saying something, he was turning and leaving, then he was gone. Back into the building which once brought me such joy and was now taking it away.

Everything was so slow, everything echoed in the sharp hum, the pavement rushed up to meet my knees and I didn't even feel it as they cracked against it. I don't get it. Am I dying?

I felt myself falling over, slowly like I was a feather. My side pressed into the pave, my head striking it and bouncing once, twice. My breaths echoing in my head. I blinked, Kei was right there. Right in front of me, our faces nearly touching. Since I had met him we had always been close to each other, never leaving each other much room, always so near. Even in death.

Was I dying?

His blue eyes were wide, the usual deep, sparkle wiped out and dull. It was like staring into a bottomless well. I reached out and placed my hand on the side of his face, his hair was still so soft, I rolled it in my fingertips, brushing it back behind his ear. I moved my hand back to his face, wiping the blood off him with my thumb. It was a small comfort that he was here with me. "_That makes you what I would die for."_

"Idiot" I whispered, I couldn't hear myself, a small pink petal fell onto his cheek and I brushed it off. "You've been watching me for so long now. Silently loving me even though I gave you no reason to. Allowing yourself to be hurt by your feelings just so I wouldn't be burdened by them…"

He was looking at me, with those wide, dead eyes. In a way they were beautiful. In a way dying was beautiful. "If only I had noticed you watching. Just when you finally rid yourself of the hurt I was unknowingly giving you, you get hurt by me again." I cupped his chin between my pointer and thumb and gently ran my thumb over his bottom lip, I could feel the blood surging past my fingers on my chest.

I let go of it, allowing the blood to gush from that small wound. His blood had almost reached where I lay. Or was that mine? I pulled him close and pressed my lips into his cold forehead "but this is a different kind of hurt that even I can't fix." My vision faded, my limbs grew number. Why didn't I feel it? Why didn't I feel this small wound? Haru, hurry.

Was I dying?

Yes, I did.

* * *

**Only one more chapter left! Haven't started writing it yet, I'm going to wait to read some reviews first (so hint hint) did you cry? I did.**

**I love that guy in the car that just drove away because I mean seriously, something like that would happen! Anyways a lot of reviews said things like "I know you said you were going to write the rape scene, but don't please." In the last chapter at the end I totally said I wouldn't lol just sayin'**

**I didn't want this to really be an erotic fic. More suspenseful/ hurt/ comfort/ whump**

**However Makoto being the seme in the hallway was very fun to write lol. Aw he'll be my 'lil uke forever though.**

**But yeah, reviews keep me posting. I mean seriously, I can't just leave it here? Or can I?**

**Mwahahaha**

**So you know the deal, click that review button and tell me what you think after all I am writing to please my readers.**

**Yours forever and always,**

**EACT**

**PS. Doesn't 'Haru' kind of sound like 'how are you?' ha you free-natics are gonna love that. (Get it free-natic…fanatic? Oh never mind, don't judge me.)**


	5. The Storm's Aftermath

**Hey. Here's the last chapter of Fear of the Storm! I hope you enjoy this last post. Just because it's the last post doesn't mean I don't want to hear what you all think so drop me a review anyways so you can tell me how you liked the chapter and story as a whole.**

**This chapter is FULL of flashbacks.**

_**SO REMEMBER ITALICIZED MEANS FLASHBACK!**_

**Here we go. Thanks for reading my story and sticking with me (a slow to post author)**

* * *

HARU'S POV

**Still DAY 6**

Makoto is dead. Every time I tell myself that, it sinks lower into my stomach like a sinking stone. I am sinking. I feel like I am sinking.

I can't move towards him, I stand in that parking lot statuesque with horror and despair, I don't even realize I am crying but I can feel the tears running down my cheeks and dripping off my chin. I want to go to him but…

There's blood, it looks black, gleaming in the sun, directly ahead. So much blood. The body that lays in front of him is that blonde boy I saw in the photo, it's impossible to tell whether it's my friend's blood or the blood of that…_monster._ They are laying so close their noses almost touch, my friends pale fingers resting on the other's cheek. I wanted to lunge forward and rip his hand from there, not wanting my friend to be tainted by that disgusting being. But they looked so content, and Makoto was smiling...

My best friend. I went to take a step, but my feet were numb and I stumbled to my knees.

Makoto… "MAKOTO!"

"_Makoto!" I slapped his shoulder "Wake up!" My friend groaned and blinked slowly, stretching his long arms up from under the covers, "You over slept, Baka." Makoto groggily wiped at his eyes with the back of his hand and pushed back the covers sitting up on my bed. Our study session had gone so late last night he had decided to crash on my bed, while I had studied through the night. I turned away_

"_Ah, gomen, Haru-chan." He yawned sluggishly and swung his legs from the bed, stretching once again arching like a cat as he stood, he stumbled over to where I was and leaned on me. I shouldered him off. "Did you finish your studies?" _

"_Of course, which is more than I can say for you." He pouted innocently. And pulled a shirt over his bare chest, shaking out his hair when his head poked free. _

"_I'm sorry." He sounded genuine so I snapped my mouth shut, refusing to waste anymore more breath to scold him. I strode huffily to the bath. He followed "Hey Haru?" I grunted and turned on the bath water with a squeak. Makoto leaned on the sink to look in the mirror. He seemed to be studying himself. I sat on the edge of the tub and watched him like I usually do. "What do you think it's like…to die?" I froze._

"_I-I don't know?" Why was he thinking this? He gave himself a sad smile in the mirror. "Don't ask things like that, you sound like you're going to kill yourself." His eyes widened and he swung towards me a frantic look on his face_

"_No!" I breathed a sigh of relief, he looked at the filling tub, expression melting into one filled with thought and… sadness? "You see, one of the cats by my house was hit by a bicycle the other day and…I was…just wondering." _

"_I don't think it's any different…" I paused, hoping to reassure him "than sleeping, I guess." I thought for a moment feeling Makoto's eyes on me, hanging onto my every word "I think that if you're dying you don't feel much of anything." I looked at him "It would be like a peacefulness that you can only experience once. A true peace…calm, like nothing else mattered." Makoto chuckled and knelt by the tub running his hand through the steaming water._

"_When you say it like that it sounds nice." The mirror began to fog with a heavy, thick mist as he rested his head on his other hand. "I hope it really is like that, whenever the time comes…"_

"-That's right, Iwatobi Swim Club Returns. My name? Haruka Nanase. Please hurry! My friend has been hurt!" I clutched the cell phone in my hand, my voice was frantic, thick with tears. I was clutching Makoto's limp hand firmly, kneeling next to him my knees stinging on the pave, damp in the pool of blood. The emergency operator was talking calmly in my ear. "No…I can't find a pulse."

"Mr. Nanase, you need to calm down. Can you do that? Check again." My fingers pressed into his wrist…

Come on…come on…_please_. My fingers flew up to his neck, blood was dotted there. Come on, Mako.

"N-no! There's no pulse! Oh my god, please! PLEASE HURRY!" my friend's eyes were closed softly, open just a sliver, I could see the hazel shine of his eyes behind his lids. His mouth was partly open, like it was when he had almost drown those years ago.

"Mr. Nanase…I assure you we are on our way…the other person. How about him?" I tore my eyes away from my friend, to the blonde. My breath heavy. My very skin seemed to be burning. I didn't care about that monster. He did this to my Mako, he could rot in hell.

"I don't know." No, I didn't care.

* * *

MAKOTO'S POV

"_Makoto, hey." I blinked, my eyes floating down to Kei who sat mere feet from me, back pressed against the wall in my small prison. I shivered in the black boxers he had brought me. He looked at me, brushing a blonde lock from his eyes. He hadn't noticed his bobby pin was gone, being crushed in my palm. I tilted my head. "What makes you so special?"_

"_What-?" I had forgotten about my raw voice and we both winced. He scooted a little closer and I found myself, despite the pain in my backside, shuffling slightly closer to him as well. _

"_I mean, why are you the way you are?" Kei paused and looked down at his lap "never mind, what a stupid question." He scolded himself, then smiled softly "I asked you a question that is impossible to answer." I suppose it was a question that really had no answer. I shrugged. "You're in much pain?" _

_Yes. I am. But I shook my head 'no' anyways, for some reason not wanting to look weak in front of him. "You don't have to hide it. You don't have to hide anything around me…you should just be yourself. After all that's who I fell in love with." I blushed and a strange warm sensation flooded me. I smiled, and reached out to place my hand on his smooth forearm. He startled slightly. Then laughed randomly, placing his hand atop of mine and squeezing gently. _

_We both slid slightly closer until our shoulders touched. His flesh was warm and we both blushed. We looked in opposite directions quickly. I could feel his skin quivering as he withheld giggles. Genuine and nervous like a school girl, it made me smile. He was adorable. Wait, what, Makoto? The blonde jerked slightly with an "Ah," digging in his jeans pocket. He produced a thin candy bar and offered it to me. Our fingers brushed as I took it. I opened it and ate some greedily, thankful for the food._

"_I'm going to college to study literature after summer." We looked at each other as I chewed softly so that I could hear his every word. And he smiled "I love poetry…" he looked to the celling and I followed his gaze, I was captivated by him and his voice._

"_Tell me one." Kei averted his gaze from the celling back to me. I really shouldn't be talking with this voice yet Kei didn't seem to mind. He licked his lips, a small arch in his brow, he shot me a curious look_

"_A poem…now?" I nodded, the candy bar getting soft in my hot palm. The thin boy beside me seemed lost in thought for a moment, and my breath hitched as he suddenly began to speak again, his voice soft like a chant…like a song, I suppose. "The clock stuck once, and it began a day_

_Where no one hoped and no one prayed._

_And yet in that darkness, a person lay_

_With a soul so pure it made the night quiver away._

_That person hoped on stars, as he sat by the bay,_

_Hoping for peace, and kindness to cure that foul day,_

_While others loathed and pitied to stay,_

_There was a soul who smiled and the world would be saved." He averted his gaze for a moment and then looked at me, "my mother would read that to me at night when I couldn't sleep." _

"_It's pretty." I managed to croak, he tilted his head and looked straight into my eyes, I ate another bite of the slowly melting chocolate, finding myself gazing back._

_He leaned forward before I could process what was happening and his face momentarily hovered close to mine. He watched me as he gently kissed the corner of my mouth where a bit of melted chocolate was, his lips, warm... soft. He pulled back his breath tickling my face. He seemed almost embarrassed at his own bravado and his face dusted a light pink; mine was quick to follow. What was that? He pulled away and resumed his previous position pulling his knees to his chest as I touched my fingers to the spot._

"_You think so? Every time I hear it I think of you." Yeah? I'm flattered "Yeah, your just what this world needs Makoto. Someone kind and caring, someone who is genuine and-"_

"_Stop." He startled as I interrupted him, my face was burning at the steady flow of compliments Kei was dishing. _

"_Sorry." I looked at him, he was resting his arms on his knees and his chin on his arms. Body taut against his clothes, eyes regretful, shining in the dim light. His fair skin glowing, as if inviting me to touch him. He was close, really close. I finished the chocolate and crunched the foil wrapper. _

_I wonder, if lick my lips…maybe some chocolate will get there and he can…do what he had a moment ago…I blushed at my thought…Makoto, stop. You cannot be falling for a man like this. But…I was. "I can't imagine being stuck in this room…I hate closed spaces-"_

"_KEI!" We both jumped, a startled yelp emitting from both of us, Kei pushed himself to his feet and scrambled away from me just as the door opened and his father strode in. I felt my insides clench in white, cold terror. The goateed man's beady eyes bore into me. He strode up to me in a single step and I heard myself scream and felt myself cower before he even reached me, hearing those work boots on the cement ground as they stopped just in front of me._

"_Dad-." _

"_Shut up!" His rough fingers wrapped around my wrist, my skin trembling as he pried apart my fingers and ripped the foil wrapper from my palm. Don't find the bobby pin, don't find the pin… "What the hell is this?" He held up the crunched wrapper. "You gave him food... you unchained him?" He turned towards Kei and I breathed a sigh of selfish relief, but in a mere moment that sigh turned into a strangled cry of horror as the large man grabbed Kei like a rag doll and shook him. Blonde locks whipping, his head bobbing furiously._

"_Dad!" Kei pleaded "Stop. I'm sorry!" I tried to push myself to my feet, but far too weak I could only watch and let out croaks of begging to the enraged father. "Dad-" _

"_You little prick! You good for nothing…piece of shit!" Kei's hands were shaking as he wrapped them around the thick wrists of his attacker. The shaking stopped, instead Kei was drawn up, feet dangling uselessly as his father held him up by his shoulders. If the situation wasn't so dire, I would have admired the man's strength. The man was holding Kei so tightly by the shoulders that his fingers disappeared into the blonde's soft flesh. He looked…terrified…_

"_It was just a little…I promise!" The man propelled his son away from him and there was a sickening thud as Kei's thin body bashed backwards against the wall and slid down to the floor, the blonde's blue eyes shimmered with tears and fear. _

"_This is the last time! You hear? You aren't allowed in this room again!" A hot tear trailed down my face, all I wanted was to crawl over to Kei and comfort him like he had done for me so many times already. Those blue eyes floated down to me and our gazes locked. There was a sound of flesh meeting flesh and Kei's head jerked violently against his father's hand, the slap echoing around the small room. Boring into my mind. "Did you hear me?!" _

"_Y-yes, I heard." The big man huffed angrily and threw the foil at his son, watching it bounce off of the blonde's face and fall at his feet. A big hand reached down and drew Kei to his feet, they made their way to the door. Kei being dragged behind his father, feet stumbling momentarily as he trailed behind, his wrist in a vise grip. He looked at me, blue eyes glittering, his lip split "Sorry" he mouthed, I just shook my head dumbly as he was lead away and the door was slammed between us. _

Somewhere around me was a high pitched, strident sound I couldn't recognize. The world was jumbled, noises and sights whirling around, some quickly, others as if in slow motion. I couldn't see, other than a sliver, a crack of light through my eyelids, blurs and whites buzzed past, sometimes so quickly it looked like falling stars, other times so slowly that the objects would leave trails behind them, like car lights in the dark city. I didn't know what this was.

Am I dying? I seem to be saying this a lot lately, but if I am…why is it taking so long?

I feel light, I feel weightless, like I am hovering mere inches off this…cot? I am lying on. The world is bouncing like I am in the back seat of a car…oh, an ambulance. I see, I'm not dead. Not yet.

I turn my head slowly and force my eyes open a bit more, forcing my vision to focus, forcing the two spit images I see to merge into one. Laying on the gurney next to me, I make out a mop of blonde hair, and there. Two dazzling blue eyes are looking at me. Kei…

I try at first to reach out to him but my arms are limp and useless. But he is looking at me. At me. He is alive-

That noise that came next startled me, it was so loud, like ripping fabric. I felt my skin crawl, I don't know what this sound is, but something about it…it sounded like dread, it made a seed of despair grow within me. My eyes felt tight, like at any moment I would burst out into tears. What is that noise?

I hear it again, much more slowly, like it is drawn out…it echoes in my head. There, I see. It's a zipper.

The zipper to a black bag, a black bag they are slowly closing around my Kei. Don't…

Don't… He's being closed away again…

The bag is slowly closing, it's at his chin now. I watch it with horror, as it passes his eyes. His beautiful blue eyes…wait!...and then slowly his hair too disappears from my view. And it's done.

Just like that.

My insides feel like mush, my thoughts rumbling around frantically. It was impossible…my love was closed away forever.

But…they couldn't. Kei hates closed spaces. He'd suffocate in there…after all, it's not like he's dead…

There is something cold pressed to my chest and someone shouts, my body lurching violently against the cot…there is a burning as if I'm on fire and I want to scream, but my eyes are glued on Kei…I mean the black bag…they have to unzip him, he'll die in there.

* * *

HARU'S POV

The small, old television hangs crooked in the corner of the room. The rusty bracket holding it up against the ceiling nearly pulled free. I am looking at the fuzzy image, it's a game show, but other than that I am just staring and not comprehending what it is I'm seeing. Like how I was in the parking lot when I first saw Makoto.

Laying on his side like that…blood…dead, no pulse…

I blinked and looked away from the TV to my lap, eyes dry from tears. Even if I wanted to cry some more I doubt I could, I'd used all of my tears. After all Makoto had been here for over 2 hours and still, no one had told me anything about my best friend. Staff would pass and look at me with pity and sympathy, one even offered me a coffee…but right now, coffee is not what I need…I need news.

The waiting room was empty besides and old lady who was snoring in the corner, she had woken up only once to tell me that her 82 year old husband was here passing some kidney stones…and even took the time to tell me the unnecessary details, the whole time I pretended to be listening, but my mind was on the old woman's eyes. They were green, the same color as Makoto's.

She was snoring now, when had I last slept? The clock was crooked too, both hands pointing at the 6. Outside the sun was sinking close to the horizon.

And then my hands…they were pink, tinted red stained with Makoto's blood. Greasy from all the soap I had used to try and clean them…

_I pressed my hands to Makoto's wound even though the blood flow had already stopped. My eyes frantically searching his many other wounds…his knee…where these bites? And these? Finger marks? I pulled one hand from the wound on his chest and with my fingers trembling violently I landed a sharp blow across his cheek. His head swung limply. _

"_Makoto! Wake up, damn it!" I slapped him again "WAKE UP!"_

"Yo, Haru!" My head whipped towards Rin's voice, he was jogging through the door, Rei, Nagisa and Gou trailing behind, faces flushed and out of breath. "Sorry we're so late. My car wouldn't start so we had to run." A plastic bag hung from the red head's grasp. I hid my hands between my knees.

"All the way?" I don't even recognize my own voice, my tongue is limp, throat thick with dry tears. Rei nodded, the former track member wheezing as well.

"News?" Gou asked, taking the empty, stained seat to my left, her warm fingers burned on my forearm as she clutched me. I shook my head, my phone call to them had been vague.

"He…didn't have…t-there was no pulse." My eyes burned, they fell silent, even their rigid breaths where held, only the static from the television and the soft snores were heard. Somewhere in the halls of the hospital a phone rang and a doctor was paged.

"Is he…okay now?" Nagisa asked, almost like a whimper. He meant 'is he alive?' but he hadn't dared to put it like that. My breaths were difficult.

"I…" I don't know...

"Of course he is, moron!" Rin threw himself into the seat to my right, putting the bag at his feet; I stared at it, the yokan and the manga, I smiled softly, but it was fleeting. "If he wasn't would they have left us hanging for so long? We would know already." Rin looked at me, a defiant, rebellious look in his eye, he smirked confidently "that mean's Makoto is fighting, he hasn't given up yet." Rei chuckled with a sharp nod, placing a hand on Nagisa's shoulder to reassure him.

"And since when has Makoto ever given up...on anything?" Never. Gou stood and paced for a moment, the silence thick and awkward. She sighed and looked to Nagisa and Rei who were standing in the uncomfortable silence sifting their weight.

"Let's go…I'm sure there's a cafeteria around here somewhere, let's go get some coffee for everyone. It might be a long night." Again with the coffee. The blonde nodded, there had been a change in him within the last few days, like he had matured some under the weight of the stress; I missed the old Nagisa. Gou lead the two away, Rin and I watched them disappear down the hall.

I sighed and I felt myself lean over and rest against Rin, my strength finally waning after so many days of stress, my friend slowly as if shocked reached up and petted my hair.

"You okay?" He asked, we were alone and yet he was whispering. I don't know, I don't feel okay.

"Yes." I lied. "Just lend me your shoulder." He didn't object, he scooted a little closer so that I was more comfortable. "Did you call his parents?" Rin nodded solemnly, his fingers raking through my hair, I hadn't brushed it in a while, so his finger's kept snagging on knots, he tried to gently work them out.

"They…were upset…hell, upset is an understatement. I've never heard a man cry like that before…" I swallowed heavily like my tongue was too suddenly too big "their last flight will be landing tomorrow about noon, they said their going to drop off Ren and Ran at the Hazuki's and then come right over to the hospital. It should well into the afternoon by then…"

"Nagisa's parent are going to watch Ren and Ran…" I repeated slowly as if comprehending it "shouldn't they be here though? After all it is their brother-"

"And if Makoto…" Rin trailed off, his fingers pulled away from my hair "if Makoto d-doesn't m-make it?..." I sat up and turned to look at him, hadn't he just said there was nothing to worry about? I had never heard Rin stutter like that. The red head looked away, turning his face from me so I couldn't see. "Would you want Ren and Ran to be here if that happens?" I averted my eyes to the tile below my feet.

"…no…" I wouldn't. Rin turned back to look at me, his eyes glassy from withheld tears, his lip was bleeding sluggishly and he licked it away quickly, as if to hide the fact he had been trying not to cry. He reached out and pulled me back to his shoulder, I didn't object.

"Did they catch them?" I felt him sigh "the bastards that did this?" I nodded, my eyes sliding closed.

"One of them…he's dead."

"About damn time something good happened."

"Yeah."

"The other one?"

"Not yet."

"Damn…they'll get him though, don't worry." I opened my eyes again, my mouth parting to speak, only to be interrupted by a looming shadow that was cast over us, my eyes followed a pair of green scrubs up to the face of a man I didn't know. A doctor. I sat up like an arrow and pushed myself to my feet, Rin was quick to follow.

"Are you boys here for Makoto Tachibana?" I couldn't speak, I felt a drop of sweat run down my back. Is he okay? Is he…

"Yes, we are." Rin answered casting a quick sideways glance at me. I must have gone pale because he gripped my arm and pulled me back into my seat. "You look like you're going to pass out" He said, "take deep breaths and calm down, the doctor hasn't said anything yet…" I nodded and quickly took a breath, running a trembling hand over my face. When had I gotten so sweaty?

"Are you his family?" Rin shook his head.

"We're his friends, but Mr. and Mrs. Tachibana are out of the country and we're representing them until they get here." Rin sounded mature and serious, with his 'cut the crap' voice he often used to get his way. The doctor blinked and then slowly nodded, seemingly satisfied that he could release information to us. The doctor looked at me, his expression melting from serious to sympathetic.

"You're the boy who found him?"

"_Makoto…wake up! DAMN IT, DON'T DO THIS! I NEED YOU!"_ I blinked, "Y-yes."

"I can't imagine what that must have been like for you…" I felt Rin's eyes on me and I looked away, focusing at the empty seat Gou had been in.

"Doctor…" Rin pressed, urging him to continue about Makoto, the red head's mature tone I had been admiring was crumbling, he was beginning to sound like a scared kid. The doctor sighed.

"Some of the information I'm about to release is very sensitive…are you sure you kids can handle it?"

"Doctor…" Rin pressed again, his voice a cross between pleading and threatening. The doctor seemed to size him up, before nodding once.

"Makoto is alive, he's in the ICU and fighting right now, the next 48 hours are critical…" He's alive…he's alive… "He has several fractured bones, his ribs and his shoulder, from what looks like blunt force trauma; and there is severe bruising several places on his body leading us to believe he was beaten with something resembling a metal bat or a crowbar… there's a laceration in his hair line from blunt force trauma as well and several shallow lacerations caused by being restrained by what seems chains and…"

The doctor paused "we'll come back to that…" Rin stepped backwards and fell into his seat resting his hand on my arm. "On a more serious note he has shattered knee cap, which will take several months of serious rehabilitation and surgeries and maybe a year or so on crutches before he can walk on it again, even then we are not sure if he'll ever walk without a limp again…and swimming…he just can't…at least not for a long time."

"Damn it" Rin stood, heaving himself from his seat and burying his hands in his hair, pacing. Each word the doctor said felt like a punch, my eyes watered with tears I thought I had used up. There was a sudden harsh 'bang' and Rin slammed a chair backwards in rage. I flinched, the sound echoing. The doctor seemed to understand the fit and he placed a hand on the heaving re-head.

"Son-"

"Don't give me that "Son" crap!" Rin shouldered the middle-aged doctor's hand off. Venom leaking from his tongue "And don't you tell me to calm down either!" The doctor put his hands up in surrender and backed off "that _patient_ of yours is one of my best friends! Swimming is his life! Did…" Rin's pointed teeth began to show as his mouth formed into an expression of despair, tears one by one began to flow over his bottom lid. All I could do is watch "Did you know that he was going to go to college to be a swim instructor?"

The doctor shook his head and looked away unsure of what to say "Now he has to change everything! He doesn't deserve this!" he hiccupped "not him…not Makoto." Rin's rant died down and the doctor straightened the chair beckoning for Rin to sit. There was an awkward silence as Rin buried his face into his hands, his hair falling like a veil around his face. I kept my gaze on the doctor, looking at my friend out of the corner of my eye.

"Maybe I should wait to tell you the rest…?" I shook my head, this time it was me who reached over and placed a hand on Rin, squeezing gently, reassuring him. Rin looked up at the doctor eyes red from the few tears he had shed.

"No, we're sorry." I said, my voice oddly calm "Please continue." The man in scrubs looked unsure,

"Yes, it's best if we just get it all out in the open now." He said almost to himself, "but as I said earlier this is very sensitive information…much worse then what I have already told you." Worse, oh right the gunshot wound…it's hard to think it could be worse than it already was.

"I'm sorry." Rin said, he sat up straight, wiping his eyes quickly with the back of his hand, trying to regain his composure "I won't lose my cool again." There was an awkward silence, somehow the old woman had slept through his outburst. I wondered how long Rin had been bottling up his despair, trying to be strong…for me. I squeezed his arm slightly tighter as the doctor shot him a look of 'I'm not so sure.'

"Makoto was lacking nourishment, as he probably wasn't fed or given a drink while he was imprisoned…and as you know" the medic continued, looking at me "Makoto received a gunshot wound to the chest at close range. Although the bullet missed any major arteries it still did major damage to several smaller ones that caused him to bleed out rather quickly…"

"He had no pulse…" I added, the doctor eyes drifted to me and then away quickly

"Yes…Makoto's heart stopped for 6 minutes…we tried several times to resuscitate him with the defibrillator, and it took that and several shots of adrenaline to get his heart to start again, we won't know until he wakes up if there is any brain damage or not…" Makoto, my best friend had been dead…I breathed heavily and felt Rin's muscles tense under my palm. I wondered if death was how I told him was that time ago…"We are very lucky that he didn't slip into a coma…" the doctor paused and looked at the red head

"And…" Rin added, urging the doctor to continue,

"We had to preform emergency surgery to remove the bullet and that went surprisingly well despite his condition. But while we were prepping him for the operation we discovered something…far, far worse." The world slowed, I could no longer feel Rin next to me. I am sinking… "The lacerations, I mentioned before… they were caused by fingernails…" his voice was echoing, that sound…is it me breathing, my heartbeat? "And teeth."

"The fuck-?" Rin began, only to be interrupted by the medic who was for some reason suddenly ashamed to look at us.

"There is severe bruising around his pelvic area, thighs and genital area as well as his buttocks and tears along the anus…"

"No…" someone said, me? Rin? I couldn't tell the pieces were slowly falling into place…

"I'm sorry." No... stop. "Makoto Tachibana tested positive for rape."

* * *

MAKOTO'S POV

**DAY 7**

"_You kissed my boy?" my eyes focused on the weapon in his hand, my mouth dry in fear, I scooted backwards._

"_No! I-I…He-!" he was on me in an instance smashing the crow bar into my side, I screamed in agony as bolts of hot, white pain shot up my torso. I sprawled to the side, tears falling from my eyes. Breath knocked from me "He…it was-!" another blow, this time to the kneecap, I felt it shatter and vomit flooded my mouth, I screamed and it bubbled from my lips like a faucet, down my chin, over my bare chest. He stepped back to look me over. I closed my eyes, squeezing my eyelids against the agony that was making my body seize and twitch._

"_He what? My boy what?" a hand twisted in my hair dragging me to my feet, I swayed and had to cling onto him to hold myself up off my ruined knee. He looked at me. "You're going to regret even living, boy." I was sobbing pitifully, vomit dripping from my mouth. "You're going to regret it." My mind was numb with pain, I couldn't think..._

_And his hand went to undo his belt._

_No. please, no. _

_I was pulling away and he let me fall, as I tried desperately to scramble away, his belt fell to the floor, the metal buckle ringing as it struck the cement. He was on me in an instant…_

"_S—stop! Let me go!" Stop it. His hands… holding me down..._

My eyes slowly fluttered, the world I was awakening to was much too bright and pure, it made my head swim. It was blinding white, I blinked repeatedly until shapes began to form. Where was I? A hospital room. I was alive? But how? And that dream, that memory…the same one I had every time I closed my eyes…I couldn't remember much after, every time I would wake up. A cold sweat, telling myself it's just a dream, telling myself it's just a nightmare. I couldn't believe that something like that, could ever be real. But it was…

Sometimes if I was lucky I wouldn't wake up, instead my dream would stop there and change to Kei coming in afterwards, with his medicine and those stupid black boxers, and his gentle fingers…

"...H…" I breathed with an uncomfortable wisp of air, as the respirator entangling my face helped me breathe. "H-Hello?" It felt funny to talk, my tongue felt useless as it flopped around in my mouth, I was surprised that my words were even audible, muffled behind the mask. I turned my head slowly, like it was much too heavy for my neck.

And then every so often I would have this other dream. That Kei was dead, that we were dead together. How morbid. I hated that dream.

Speaking of, where was Kei? I blinked again, the pillow was deep and it felt like I was sinking into it. Slowly the world began to dim from the godly glow into a mellow green and finally my eyes adjusted to see wires and tubes hanging from me like spider webs, and my leg hanging from the ceiling in a sling. I felt for the most part numb, there was little pain to remind me of the hell I had endured. Besides a dull throb in my knee, chest and rear, which felt more like a cramp that the injuries I had sustained. It was probably the drugs… but I felt okay.

The room was cold and smelled of bleach but just outside the window the sky was warm and pink with a rising sun. It was dawn. What day is it? I reached a hand up and brushed the hair from my face. My fingers resting on something cold entangled there. I pulled it free, Kei's bobby pin…he'd probably want it back. I clutched it tight in my palm like the day I had stolen it and rested back into the pillows. I am safe.

I am safe…

The door slid open and my gaze flickered from the window to it, a middle-aged nurse entered with a clipboard, she startled when she saw me looking at her but after a moment her face lit up and a grin seemed to explode on her features; she hung the clip board at the foot of my bed and came over to my bed side.

"Well, hello there handsome." She said, she placed a hand on her hip. "Aren't you a sight for sore eyes…welcome back."

"…K-Kei?" I asked struggling to push myself into a sitting position, she gasped and tried to force me back down, but realizing it was to no avail, assisted me instead.

"The blonde boy you were found with?" I nodded, eyeing the nurse expectantly, the nurse's brow furrowed and she bit her lip. "Honey…" she began, sitting on the edge of my bed, placing hand on my shoulder, her eyes were…sympathetic, sad, motherly…I couldn't tell.

"Which room is he in? When can I see him?" My voice was slowly getting stronger, although still muffled behind the respirator.

"Honey…he was already gone when we got there." Gone? I shook my head, my hair stinging my face, my breath puffing, moist in the mask. I struggled to take it off. "No." she said trying to force the mask back "keep it on." I frantically ripped it off.

"What do you mean…_gone_?" It was a dream…it had to be… my eyes grew painful with pressure and I felt my cheeks grow wet with tears.

"I mean, he's…" she eyed the discarded mask on the mattress "He's dead. There was nothing we could do for him…" What are you saying…? I don't understand. I clutched the bobby pin tighter, until it stung my palm.

"He's dead?" I repeated, "But…" He couldn't be. "He's not." I shook my head, my breaths hurt, everything hurts "HE'S NOT!" my breaths are desperate, the heart monitor erratic. "KEI IS NOT DEAD!"

It had been a dream…Kei's not… he can't be…I thought that it was just a dream, a nightmare...

* * *

HARU'S POV

**DAY 7**

The crooked clock read noon. The doctor from yesterday had stopped by about 3 hours ago and told us Makoto was awake and talking, with no apparent brain damage… yet for some reason we weren't allowed to see him yet. We had all slept there, in the waiting room. The old woman had long gone home with her husband and the TV channel had been changed to the news.

The second stalker, the teacher from Uzuki Middle had been caught around midnight last night but none of us rejoiced, not after the news that Makoto had been…raped. I still hated to admit it, I just couldn't…

After that we were unable to think of anything but that.

I had just hung up, after the call from Makoto's parents…they had rejoiced with sobs after hearing that their son had awoken. I couldn't bring myself to tell them the extent of his injuries…especially about the…the rape.

"Makoto's going to need some serious support." Gou had said randomly, we had been barley speaking to each other "his life is going to change a lot after this and we all need to be there for him." She looked at her brother who had said nothing since we found out, it looked like his mind was elsewhere. Like he was an empty shell. In fact, I'm sure we all did. No one bothered to answer her.

Now, it was a little past noon. I watched the clock, the second hand move slowly around the digits. 4,5,6,7,8…

"Makoto Tachibana?" an unfamiliar voice asked, our heads snapped up in unison, a new doctor stood there, I was the first to stand. And the doctor beckoned for us to follow him "you can see him now…but his condition is still…" he paused, searching for the right word "Delicate" he chose "so not for too long." We trailed after him obediently down a windowless hall. My heart was beating erratically.

"Is he going to be okay?" Nagisa asked, quickening his pace slightly to be close to the medic, the doctor cast a sideways glance at the blonde and nodded

"With some time…right now he's rather distressed and a bit confused." He stopped outside a door marked 317, Makoto Tachibana was scrawled on the wall beside it. He rested his hand there turning to look at us. "Don't overwhelm him with sympathy, it will only make it harder for him to recover." We all nodded. Just open the door already. I want to see him. "He's hurt physically, emotionally and mentally and recovering will take some time…" open the damn door

Open it. I want to see Makoto. I want to see my best friend already.

"We know, doctor" Rei said, pushing up his glasses "please" he nodded to the door "we just want to see him already." The man in scrubs complied and the door slid back, I shouldered my way in and burst through the doorway first, there. Sitting on the bed, pressed back into the pillows…

"Makoto…" I said, I was overwhelmed by relief, tears stung at my eyes. It took a moment for my friend to respond as his gaze was at the window. His hospital gown was bulky from the bandages underneath and his leg was in a cast hung in a large sling. A thin white bandage was wrapped around his forehead, and dark black bruises poked from under the thin sheets and gown, littering his pale skin.

There were so many wires and tubes hanging from him, and a mask around his face to help him breathe…

But he was alive.

He slowly turned to look at me, face expressionless, eyes red…he had been crying. I felt frozen, my bottom lip quivered, he was alive…

I crossed the room in it seemed like a single step and threw my arms around him. "Makoto!" I held him tight to me, feeling his chest rise and fall with breath, he was alive…Makoto tensed under my embrace.

"I'll leave you guys alone" the doctor said backing out of the room awkwardly "only a half hour, okay?"

"Thank you." Rin said with a nod, I heard the rest of them stride over to the bedside and I finally let go of my friend, who I noticed made no move to hug me back. I sat on the mattress beside him, facing him. "You have no idea how worried we were, Mako. We're so glad you're okay." Makoto said nothing, just eyed me. Why? He was looking into my eyes… he reached up and took off the mask.

"Your eyes…they're blue like his were" He said. I tensed and pulled back a little. What? The aura in the room went from relieved to confused; and I felt everyone tense with it.

"Like whose?" Gou asked, Makoto looked away from me, almost embarrassed

"Like Kei's" that boy, that blonde boy, the second stalker. The boy I had seen laying beside my friend and in the picture at the middle school.

"Don't worry, Makoto. That bastard's never going to hurt you again. He's dead." Makoto's eyes flickered up to Rin they held there awkwardly for a few moments before they drifted to the window.

"He is isn't he?" Makoto toyed with something in his fingers, my eyes were drawn to it as it shimmered in the light, a bobby pin? "I know…he's dead."

"Yes" Nagisa said, nodding frantically "and the other one was caught too, Mako-chan. So you're safe now." I watched my friend's eyes flicker with hidden emotion and I followed his gaze to the window, there was nothing but sky, I turned my eyes back to him. Why is he acting like this?

"You know, he was my…" Makoto looked back at us, eyes moist "…friend." I shook my head not comprehending, I played with the sheet in my fingers

"Who?"

"Kei…he was helping me, bringing me food, dressing my wounds, helping me escape…" he…Kei, was? But… "And his father killed him." I was beginning to understand now, I clutched the sheet tightly, my eyes growing wet for the pain Makoto must be feeling. Makoto managed a sad smile and it broke my heart. "Stupid of him, huh?" No one said anything, no one dared to. Makoto just sat there with that small smile, eye closed, as if any moment he may break. His smile said 'don't worry about me, I'll be fine. But at any moment I'm going to burst into tears.'

Gou reached forward and brushed back his olive hair, planting a gentle kiss on his forehead. The smile wavered but stayed, and between his lashes I could see the glisten of withheld tears. "He was so stupid." Makoto repeated his voice a whisper "giving his life for someone like me." I released the sheets and instead placed my hands in my lap.

"I don't think it's so stupid." I said, my voice barely a mumble. Makoto heard me and his eyes opened and his smile disappeared, he looked at me, eyes red and shining with hidden grief. Rin placed the bag with the Yokan and the manga on the bed side table.

"Here." He said rather bluntly. "For you." He placed a hand on Makoto's hair and ruffled it gently. "I'm taking Gou, Nagisa and Rei to the vending machine to get Mako a drink to go with his Yokan, okay?" he asked me, I nodded dumbly. "We'll be back soon, Makoto."

"But-"

"Now, four eyes." Rin took Rei by the arm and the others obediently followed as Rin marched out, throwing quick glances back at Makoto who had said nothing. In a moment I was alone with my best friend. I didn't know what to say…so I reached in the bag and drew out the manga.

"Rin and I thought you might like to read this…it's a romantic one…just like you like…" I flipped through it "oh, sorry about the dog eared pages, Rin wanted to mark the pages with the cute girls." I handed it to him and thankfully he took it, he stared at it dumbly.

"Everything reminds me of him, now that he's gone." I slowly took out the box of Yokan unsure of what to say, I averted my eyes from him. "He liked romantic manga too." I held the yokan in my grasp and turned to look at him, he was staring at the cover.

"You know a lot about him for only having spent 2 days with him." 2 days? That's all? It felt like so much longer.

"Only 2 days…" Makoto repeated as if in a daze. He sighed and set the book aside "I'm sorry Haru. I'm sorry I'm acting like this but…" but what? I squeezed the box of Yokan tightly, not realizing that I was probably ruining it.

"It's okay, Makoto. After all that's happened to you I think you're entitled-" he interrupted with a shake of his head, his hair tossed gently

"He loved me, Haru." My mind went blank for a moment, did I hear that right? As if reading my mind Makoto repeated it "He really loved me…"

"What…?" I shifted my weight on the bed, suddenly embarrassed, like I was hearing a secret confession. "He _loved _you? Like…" I was at a loss "_loved"_ I said it again, trying to process it. I looked at Makoto who was blushing, "and did you?"

"Did I what?"

"Did you love him back?" the silence was deafening and Makoto reached up and pushed the bobby pin back into his hair, his fingers lingering on it for a moment. His lip quivered and he bit it quickly to hide it, he said nothing, but his eyes were growing redder. Finally he let a tear fall.

"Yes…" Makoto… "I do." He couldn't bring himself to say 'did' he was still speaking in present tense...His hand curled into the front of his hospital gown, and he shook his head scattering his tears "I do." He repeated. I know I should say something or comfort him, but I couldn't move. I felt guilt, for not checking the blonde's pulse at the scene in the parking lot, he might have still been alive…but no, a part of me knew he wasn't… I reached forward and placed my hand atop Makoto's hair. Could someone fall in love like this, after only 2 days?

"I'm sorry" I hear myself say; then that text, the one that told us where to find him…it was Kei.

"His dad…he was so terrible! He beat me and held me down and…" Makoto shook his head frantically. Raped him…I knew, we both didn't want to admit it. "And then afterwards Kei would come in and…" Makoto let out a laugh through his tears "and he was so shy…he would clean my wounds and take off the chains, and bring me clothes and food. He even helped me escape! He was going to college, Haru! To study literature, he would tell me his favorite poems and hold me to comfort me…!"

"Makoto..." he was heaving now, tears soaking the front of his gown, he had his hands pressed to his face, I pulled him to me and held him as he sobbed.

"He was a swimmer too, Haru. He had been in love with me for so long but he never told me because he didn't want to burden me! And he still helped me even though he knew his dad would hurt him too! His own father killed him, Haru! His own father! And his last words…he told me he would die for me! But how the hell do you think that makes me feel now that he did-?!"

"Makoto, stop!" I cut off Makoto's rant mind sentence. The heart monitor's erratic beeps filling the air "calm down, it's going to be okay." His tears had soaked my shirt and it clung damp to my chest, I didn't mind. I felt his heaves slow in my embrace and the beeping began to regulate. He pulled back from me, face struck with tears that were still sluggishly falling. I held him at an arm's length as I pushed him back against the pillows. "There is nothing you could have done differently, nothing you could change, nothing, okay? So stop blaming yourself for something you can't fix, it'll take some time but everything will work out, I promise." I realized my words may have been too blunt and I snapped my mouth closed.

We both looked away from each other, Makoto still hiccupping lightly. He wiped his face on the back of his bare arm, I focused on the growing spot on my shirt.

"Do you think I'm…" he trailed off and I eyed him out of the corner of my eye… I didn't know what he was going to say, but I said

"No" anyways and he sighed in slight relief. Makoto looked at me and I looked back. There was a slight awkward silence. I had a feeling the recovery would be a hard one.

"Do you think…I'll be okay?" Makoto fixed a wrinkle in the sheet that was draped over him. I could tell he was still weak from blood loss, "Do you think I'll recover…fully?"

"Physically yes, emotionally… no, I don't." Makoto looked up at me with a startled expression and I gently placed my hand over his "love is a hard thing to forget. And I don't think you should." Makoto turned his hand over to grasp mine, and we sat like that our palms pressed together, holding hands like we did when we were kids. His hand is warm…he's alive. The clock obnoxiously ticked away seconds.

"I'm glad I'm alive." He said randomly, I couldn't help it a laugh bubbled past my lips and I squeezed his hand

"Me too…you have no idea…" finally, for the first time since. Makoto smiled a genuine smile and I had missed it. It faded into an expression of solemn thoughtfulness though, the smile wasn't long lasting. My smile too vanished.

"You remember when I asked you what death was like?" I stiffened, and nodded slowly my eyes searching his down cast face, he was looking at our clasped hands. "It was like you said; I didn't feel much of anything." His fingers shifted in mine, my heart felt still "It was calm and peaceful…like I was drifting away…" his voice died off "do you know the painful part of death, Haru?"

I shook my head numbly, he looked up at me with a sad smirk "waking up."

* * *

**Oh no, that's the end? Who the fuck ends it like that? Well, I do apparently. To let your imaginations fill in the blanks… anyways, I hope you all enjoyed. I wrote this listening to I'll see you again by, westlife and yep, I cried a bit. Anyways just because this is the end of the story please review. Maybe I'll write some more Free! Fanfics. Who knows.**

**Anyways I'd appreciate a review like seriously. Worked my ass off to actually find time to finish the story juggling the holidays, work and college oh yeah and relatives (like seriously go home already)**

**So let me know what you thought of the chapter/ending/or story as a whole. Much appreciated, lovelies.**

**Yours Truly,**

**EACT ( ^-^ )**

**Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed it.**

**Sequel?**


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